The Snow Queen
by AngelofPrey
Summary: Crossover with Hans Christian Andersan's The Snow Queen, only set in Whoverse. The Doctor is kidnapped by the Snow Queen, now Rose must save him from her icy palace before he forgets her, the TARDIS, and himself entirely. Rose/Ten, Ten/OCish
1. Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER~DISCLAIMER~DISCLAIMER~ DISCLAIMER~DISCLAIMER~DISCLAIMER~ DISCLAIMER~

I DO NOT OWN DOCTOR WHO, OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS/STORYLINES/ANYTHING.

I DO NOT OWN THIS PLOT LINE EVEN, IT BELONGS TO HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON UNDER THE TITLE, THE SNOW QUEEN.

I DO NOT OWN THE BBC… IT OWNS ME…

Reviews are love, please review.

This story was inspired by a piece of artwork by Skytyne found here:

.com/art/DW-Snow-Queen-92505482

Love and monsters,

Angel_of_Prey 3


	2. Chapter 1

A Broken Mirror

On the planet of Skadi, in the third quadrant of the constellation Emreslion there are two very old stories. The first story is the story of the twin mirrors. When the planet was being created, the Great One made a truth mirror. When one would look into the truth mirror they saw themselves and anyone reflected in it as they truly are. At the same time the Great One's arch nemesis made a second mirror, a mirror of lies and deception. Whenever someone beautiful would look into it, they would appear ugly and monstrous, a good person would see themselves as evil, a courageous person would see themselves cowardly, and likewise a terrible person would see nothing but how good they are. The shape of her face was oddly familiar and enticing with generous lips and full cheeks.

Eventually the Great One's arch nemesis grew tired of this pitiful joke; it didn't cause enough chaos for his chaotic mind, so he took a staff of wood and shattered the mirror into a million tiny pieces. These pieces scattered to the wind and it was a few months before the nemesis saw their effects. Should a person get a shard of the mirror lodged in their eyes, they would see everything around them as if they were constantly looking into the mirror. To make matters worse, should a shard end up in the person's heart, the shard would turn their heart to a block of ice, and they would become self-centered, cruel, and unfeeling. This amused the Great One's nemesis to no end, and since he first saw these things take place, he has not been able to stop laughing at the trouble he's caused. Every time a person suddenly changes for the worse, this change is blamed on that evil mirror.

The second story of the planet Skadi, was that of a witch. This witch called herself the Snow Queen and was the embodiment of the season of Winter on that planet. She was unyielding, and beautiful, but bitter in both looks and demeanor. It was said she lives in a castle made of ice, that was guarded by polar bears and wolves in the northern reaches of the planet, where it was so silent that the song of the northern lights could be heard carried on the wind. She was known for stealing men and boys from their homes during a storm and for leading women young and old into the woods and freezing them to death. She was lonely, very lonely, and she would steal the men to appease her loneliness, and kill women to appease her jealousy. In the end, the men died too quickly to be of any use, and the death of the women meant little for they were still loved even in death. The Snow Queen longed for a companion who understood her unending loneliness and could share it with her for as long as the snows came in Winter. For now she hunted towns and cities searching for such a man to steal back to the north with her. She could be seen at the heart of a snow flurry traveling in the form of the largest snowflake of them all. It was said that the frosty patterns made on windows in the middle of a cold night were her kisses. She would mark each house she peered into to inspect on the men and boys with her frigid kisses, letting the inhabitants know that she was watching.

A prophesy had been given to the people of Skadi by the Great One many centuries ago, before the First Great Civil War. It said that one day a house of blue would appear in the northern woods, and the Winter Queen would steal a lonely god from it. When she does this and only then will her searching for a companion cease. However, when the lonely god is stolen, a child of Spring will search for him and will be the one to find and smash the mirror of truth which will cease the terror caused by its brother.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor and Rose had come to this planet once before, briefly, very briefly. They left as soon as the Doctor realized that he had landed them smack dab in the middle of the planet's ninth violent upheaval and civil war. That had taken him, about 0.2 of a second to realize this fact, and he promptly pushed Rose back into the TARDIS after realization had dawned, and they skittered off into the stars again to set down on a slightly less life-threatening but still dangerous planet for an adventure with yet again, lots of running.

This time he touched down in the middle of the planet's winter festival, exactly where and when he'd planned to.

Brilliant.

When Rose stepped out of the TARDIS and into the snow she was grinning and giggling like a madman… well mad_woman_.

"Oh Doctor, this is _beautiful_!" she sighed spinning around in the fresh snowfall, closing her eyes and tilting her face to the starry night sky.

The Doctor just went on smiling at her until she finished basking in the first moments on the new planet. She had settled to stand when she peered through the trees of the woods at little golden lights peeking through the branches.

"Look! There's a town over there!" she told him. "Can we go explore it?" Like she really needed to ask anymore.

He stepped forward and reached for her mitten clad hand and clasped it firmly in his own un-mittened one.

"You sure you're warm enough in that?" she asked with genuine concern. He hadn't added any layers to his usual pin-stripe suit and overcoat, though he had thrown on a green scarf to look festive for the… festival. Rose had donned a big puffy winter coat, mittens, a rainbow colored scarf and matching hat. Her nose, chin, and cheeks had already been worn a rosy red by the chilly air and the Doctor could barely suppress the urge to ignore her question and just stand there taking in her rosy complexion for the rest of the night. But then that would lead to her developing hypothermia and she would freeze to death and that would be bad. So he wondered how she managed to look so cute and be devastatingly beautiful… you know, for a human, at the same time, and then began his explanation of why he needn't bother with extra layers.

"Quite warm enough," he explained, "Timelord physiology allows my internal temperature to fluctuate." He said beginning to walk with her towards the lights.

"So you're… cold-blooded like a reptile or something?" she asked.

"I'll try not to be insulted by that…" he muttered before correcting her. "Not cold-blooded no, if that were the case I'd be lethargic by now. No, it's just a little bit of superior biology, my brain tells my circulatory what the outside temperature is and the double heartbeat keeps everything the right temperature. Something like your own heating systems but mine doesn't shut off areas that are considered 'expendable,' my hearts work faster so everything keeps warm, and I don't drop dead of a heart attack because there are two of them. So I suppose hot-blooded would be the correct term." He ignored her giggle at his expense. "I love having two hearts, without them I'd freeze up like a block of ice dressed like this."

"Does that mean that your normal temperature is higher than mine?"

"On the contrary, it's actually cooler. Here take off your mitten."

He pulled off her mitten and wrapped her warm fingers in his own. She gasped realizing that his fingers were indeed cooler than hers, but not in the out-in-the-cold-for-too-long kind of way.

"See, lower body temperature… Can't believe you haven't noticed before!"

She grinned at him with an adoring giggle and leaned her head on his shoulder as they walked, before slipping into another string of questions.

"So, what'd you take me here for?" She asked poking his shoulder.

"Well, do you remember how we came here before and it was in the middle of a giant battle."

Rose shivered remembering the sight of the battle field greeting them as she stepped out of the TARDIS, it was horrific. "Yeah, I remember."

"Well I thought we'd try again, and this time we landed right where I wanted us to."

"Well that's a change!"

"Oi!"

"And what's so special about this planet at this exact time?"

"It's the planet's winter festival, there's singing, dancing, music, food, shops, big dinners, ice skating, jams, cakes, a whole celebration to forget the cold winter's night, and I'm told, some of this solar system's best chips."

Rose stopped dead in her tracks. "Really?"

"Yup." He said popping the "p", and skipping ahead a little.

"You are the best." She said gratefully falling back into stride with him.

"Yes, I am."

"Oi, now don't let that go to your head!" she said good-naturedly slapping him on the arm.

"Are you insinuating that I have an ego?" he laughed in return.

"Yup," she retorted, "One the size of Belgium."

They continued to argue and laugh happily as they neared the town, but before they cleared the trees a gust of wind picked up and the fluffy snow danced from the branches of the evergreens towering above them.

Rose had fallen into a snow bank after a shove from the Doctor and she spluttered and spat trying to compose herself as he laughed uncontrollably, she was about to let loose a string of curses on him but his cry of surprise and pain distracted her.

"Doctor, are you alright?" she asked, struggling to stand.

"My eye." He said. "Something's blown into my eye…"

"Let me look." She stood in front of him and inspected the eye. Besides a little redness from irritation of something definitely having been there, there was nothing wrong.

"It's gone now." He whispered. "Must've been a bit of ice or something."

Rose first suspected something was really truly wrong when his gaze returned to her and his face grew grave, like he was seeing her for the very first time.

"Doctor?" she inquired. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head, and looked at her again, this time his frown deepened but he replied. "Nothing, I'm fine."

But he wasn't fine; a shard of the mirror of deception had worked its way into his eye. Now, the human girl he had seen as one of the most beautiful creatures in the universe (though he'd never admit to that), seemed ugly, and as they walked he was wondering exactly why he had seen her as exceptionally beautiful. What the hell was going on?! This was Rose he was talking, well thinking about and she was still the Rose who had opened up the TARDIS to save his life… she was still his amazingly brilliant companion and he was still going to let her stay for as long as she wanted. Perhaps this realization of her plainness was a good thing, perhaps his hearts would stop speeding up whenever she turned her special "Doctor" smile on him, maybe he would stop grinning back at her like a madman, maybe he would stop reaching for her hand as often as possible, maybe, just maybe he would stop adoring her so much that it _hurt_. It was unlikely, he realized, because it wasn't her beauty that he had admired her so much for, but her spirit.

When they had finally reached the town Rose was back to chatting happily with the Doctor, but found it oddly unsettling that he was silent. The Doctor was NEVER silent, only when they were hiding from the gravest danger was his mouth not running, and the fact that he had his nose scrunched up in distaste as he looked around the town really set her warning bells off.

"Alright, what's wrong?" she said stepping in front of him and putting her hands on her hips.

His eyes met hers for a moment before flitting away again to appraise the town. "I dunno, this place was a lot more beautiful in my memories…" he trailed off. "Now it's, I dunno…"

"What are you talking about?" she chastised him. "It's gorgeous! It reminds me of Winter scenes from the fronts of Christmas cards back home… It's quaint, and homey, and perfect." She sighed.

The Doctor continued to look around. "Well, I guess it could be… but I really wouldn't say perfect…"

"Well of course nothing's _perfect_, but this is as close as you can get really."

"But look at it Rose, there's something off with everything! That building has a door that's too large, and the glass is all in non-geometric shapes! And that horse over there is completely disproportionate!"

"…That's because it's a cow."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. They have them in Scotland -- are you sure we're not on Earth?"

"We're not on Earth, but this was colonized by humans seeking a return to the better times and traditions."

"That would explain everything looking Earth-like… Except for that alien over there of course."

"But really Rose, you think this place is that great? Don't you want me to take you somewhere else? Maybe the frozen moon of Grimbonaught, where all of the ice crystals align ever so perfectly? Wouldn't that be better, then being on this misshapen rock with a lot of misshapen… stuff?"

"I like it here Doctor, you took me here to see the festival so I want to stay! What's wrong with you?! Really, you've been rude before but now you're being outrageous!"

"I'm sorry Rose, it's just, everything looks so strange right now and I don't know why… like I'm looking at the world through one of those fun house mirrors, the kind that makes everything look so ugly…"

Rose chastised herself for being hurt by his comment. She had tried so hard to arrange her hair into her hat in a pretty way, and had done up her makeup especially nice for him because he had said that he was going to treat her today after being such a trooper when she lost her face in 1953.

"Why don't you try your glasses then?" she quipped.

"Here Rose, let me make it up to you! Let's go visit the shops, and I'll buy you some sweets and something nice alright?"

She looked incredulous. "Do you have any money?"

"As a matter of fact, this planet's currency finds a fresh banana to be more valuable than gold." He pulled three bananas out of his pocket. "So I can get us a five course dinner at the finest restaurant in town, you a diamond necklace, and half of the rooms in the finest hotel in town with the amount of bananas I've got in my pockets."

Rose fought a smirk at the innuendo the Doctor has missed.

"Sounds lovely." She said.

"Well then Rose Tyler, would you join me for a night out on the town?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her and offered an arm. "What do you say?"

A slow grin appeared on her face. Maybe this was just a passing thing with his vision being all wonky, she hoped. "I would be glad to." She replied taking his arm and being happily led through the town.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The first thing they did was grab some chocolate crepes from a street vendor, and ate them watching people ice skate. Then they joined in with the town wide annual snow-ball fight. After which they were again ravenous and went for fish and chips; not at the most expensive restaurant in town. Then to the Doctor's chagrin, Rose dragged him shopping. Rose bought some gifts for her mother and for her friends and they even found a door knob for the TARDIS' consol. Finally Rose stumbled upon something that she would love for herself. In the cobbler's shop window sat a pair of beautiful leather boots. She went inside to admire them; they were soft and light brown with bright red trim, and had fur on the inside that was gloriously soft and warm, and to Rose's delight they were just her size. To her disappointment they were also expensive and Rose had already spent most of the purse of Skadilian currency that the TARDIS had dropped on her head on the way out the door, so there was no way Rose was going to get these beautiful shoes; until the Doctor stepped in.

"Rose, I promised you a gift." He insisted handing three bananas over to the cobbler. Rose blushed furiously as the cobbler wrapped them up in a special box and winked at her saying something about being lucky for having such a generous man on her arm.

A bonfire had been set up in the main square for a story teller to entertain anyone who cared to listen and the Doctor and Rose purchased mugs of hot chocolate before sitting on a bench to watch him retell local legends with practiced enthusiasm. The man spun the ancient legends about the Snow Queen making Rose shiver with the ghost stories. Then he moved on to stories about the twin mirrors, the mirror of truth, and the mirror of deception. He told about how the mirror of deception was smashed and that people would get pieces stuck in their eyes and would suddenly see the world as ugly, a condition described as "mirror syndrome." The Doctor paled considerably during this story and could not contain himself to ask:

"What are the symptoms of this mirror syndrome?"

"Why?" asked the storey teller, "You know someone who might have been affected by it?"

"No, just wanted to know." The Doctor replied a little too harshly.

As the story teller went into the details of the effects of the mirror shards, Rose listened intently, then felt dread pit in her stomach as she realized the Doctor was exhibiting the first signs of having a shard in his eye. Luckily there was a relatively easy way to have them removed, unlike the ones that lodge in the heart.

She leaned over to him to ask him quietly about this theory. "Doctor, do you think that's what ended up in your eye? In the forest when you said something blew into it?"

"Not right now Rose." The Doctor hissed. He didn't mean to be so harsh, but he was absolutely terrified. He had once seen someone die because they went untreated for the mirror shards and it wasn't a pleasant death. His only solace was the fact that one hadn't lodged into his heart; otherwise he would have been in serious danger. Only then did he notice the hurt expression on her face.

"Rose I'm sorry for snapping, but I'm anxious. I'm not sure if it was a bit of the mirror or not, but I intend to find out, and get it treated before this gets any worse… this town, I remembered it as being so beautiful, but to me it looks hideous. Even people… I was wondering what could have made you seem so different in such a short period of time… I should have known it would be this. I really shouldn't have taken you here, it could have been you that got a sliver in your eye, still could… Come on, we can't do anything for it tonight, and you look exhausted, let's get a room and you can settle in for the night."

As they stood to walk to the hotel Rose reached up and kissed the Doctor's cheek in thanks for the wonderful evening, regardless of him being a little bit more rude than usual. He smiled at her happy that they had figured out what was wrong, and that it was just an easy fix. Everything seemed to be alright until the wind picked up again and the clouds that had gathered in the sky began to pour snow over the town in a magical end to the night, but it also blew another shard into town, and as luck or fate would have it, into the Doctor's right heart.

The Doctor doubled over in pain, "Oh, my chest!" he gasped clutching at his clothes.

"Doctor!?" Rose cried. "Doctor, what's wrong? Speak to me please, tell me what happened!" she shouted clutching his arm tightly and trying to help him up. She was shocked when he pushed her off him forcefully and growled:

"Get off me! I don't need a mother hen, I'm a grown man! Stupid ape, stupid girl."

Rose sat where she had landed on the boardwalk in complete silence and shock at his words. Rose's jaw set before she got up grabbing the bags of gifts for her friends and family, and striding off towards the hotel with a couple of the bananas that had fallen from his pocket to pay for a room. She purposely left the box with the beautiful shoes on the sidewalk next to him.

Only when she had drawn herself a hot bath and had allowed herself to calm down did she find herself in tears. It had been… a while since she'd been called a stupid ape, and the second part of the phrase had stung even more. She was only concerned for him, and he had thrown her off like she'd been the one to hurt him in the first place. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't like him. She wondered absently if it had anything to do with the shard of glass in his eye before she crawled out of the tub and into bed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As the Doctor watched Rose storm off, he immediately regretted his actions. What had come over him? This worried him. What worried him only slightly more was the fact that he was shivering. He wasn't supposed to shiver… Brushing the thoughts aside and focusing on fixing his relationship with Rose, he scooped up the shoe box with her beautiful new shoes, and they really were beautiful… if he closed one eye and squinted.

He sat outside the hotel for a little while with a pen and a slip of paper in his freezing hands scratching a helpless note onto the paper. As he finished a large sledge had pulled up in front of the hotel and stopped before him. The Doctor smiled down at the note, it was sure to fix his mistake.

"You there." A voice floated on the air to his ears and gripped him fiercely by his nerve-endings. The voice was deep yet feminine; it spoke of countless winters, unending frost, and loneliness. The Doctor looked up and met the eyes of one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever seen. It was a tall woman with silvery white hair, porcelain skin that was nearly as white as the furs surrounding her, eyes blue like both the coldest ice and the hottest flame, but dark and deep and hypnotizing. She was dressed in a giant fur coat of the purest white. The Doctor felt the air temperature drop another few degrees and he shivered. Something was distinctly _off_ about her, her image shimmered a little before his gaze and he thought he could see this image of her superimposed over another more dangerous one. He rubbed the eye the shard was in and blinked a few times before responding to her words.

"Me?" he replied rather weakly, his voice about an octave higher than he wanted it to be.

The woman smiled a smile that he supposed was supposed to look warm. It wasn't.

"Of course you." She said. "Do you see anyone else I could be talking to?"

The Doctor looked around sheepishly, "Well… no."

"Come with me." She said moving over to make room for him in the sledge.

"Oh, I would but you see I've got a… friend in the hotel over there, and I really shouldn't… er… I mean I should at least say goodbye…" the Doctor couldn't find the will power to refuse the mysterious woman and her invitation. Something about her was tugging at the back of his brain and it wasn't letting go.

"Then be quick about it… I won't wait long." She said turning to face forward. The Doctor felt like his collar had loosened when her eyes left him he took a deep breath to rid himself of the sensation. He paused for a beat letting the woman's words fully sink-in, and then bolted with the shoe box into the hotel.

"Excuse me," he addressed the woman at the front desk. "Hello, um, I'm looking for Rose Tyler; could you tell me what room she's in?"

"Um, I'm sorry sir that is against our customer confidentiality policy." The woman replied.

The Doctor felt like he could scream with frustration.

"You don't understand. She's my… wife, I'm John Sm-- er, Tyler!" He wiped out the psychic paper and the woman's eyebrows rose.

"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience sir. She's just checked in, room 307, up those stairs, first corridor, and third room on the left."

"Thank you!" he growled making a dash for the stairs.

"Don't you want your room key sir?" she hollered after him.

"No, Rose'll let me in!" he called down from the stairs.

The Doctor stopped at the door and rested his head against the wood panting heavily. He wasn't tired it was just that the further he got from the pure white woman the harder it became to take another step away. What the hell was wrong with him? He left without going in.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When the thoroughly enchanted Doctor had dashed back down the corridor to leave with the woman in white the completely lucid Doctor stepped from around a corner and walked up to the thoroughly abandoned Rose's door.

The no-longer-abandoned and Doctor's-savior Rose stood behind him and watched the entranced Doctor leave.

"You sure we can't just--"Rose began.

"No." The Doctor answered dryly.

"No, I mean we could—"

"Rose." He said looking up at her this time; there was a warning in his voice.

"Alright." She sighed. She watched him finish scrawling the warning message onto the back of his apology letter, and frowned as she remembered the panic that had flooded her when she found it.

The Doctor spoke again when he'd finished the letter and stuffed it into the box and closed the lid, his eyes were full of sympathy and affection as he spoke. "As much as I would love to stop what happens next, just as much as you would, we can't. This has to happen this way. You help so many people along your journey, and we save so many more the way it turns out… we can't change it Rose, not a thing, we just can't." He had placed his hand on her shoulder and Rose nodded as it slid from her shoulder to her hand where his finally warm-ish hand grasped her own.

Rose smiled sadly then wrapped her arms around him tightly. "You just can't understand how scared I was. I thought I'd lost you!"

The Doctor grinned into her hair, "No, it'd take more than a carbon-based skin graft created to resemble an embodiment of winter to make me truly ever forget you."

Rose smiled genuinely this time. "I'm sick of this place." She said patting his hand. "Take me home."

The Doctor's face paled a little.

"I mean the TARDIS, Doctor…" her grin was infectious.

He smiled back and squeezed her hand, "Let's go home, Rose Tyler."

They walked down the corridor and out the door before the Doctor bolted back inside to drop the box in front of the other Rose's door and pound on it till she woke up and then bolt back out into the street to join the laughing Rose waiting for him in the snow.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She smiled as he burst through the hotel doors.

"I was afraid I was going to have to leave without you." The frosty woman in the pure white furs said too sweetly. "Hang on to the sled on the back."

"Excuse me?" he said glancing at the child's toy clinging for dear life onto the runners of the larger sled.

"Don't make me repeat myself." She hissed turning an icy glare on him which he obeyed instantly.

As the Doctor folded his limbs onto the sled in a way that would keep him from falling off and regenerating, half of his mind was beating him over the head with a metaphorical frying pan and screaming to get back in that hotel and stay safe in the room with Rose. The other half of his mind was jumping about with that familiar itch at the back of his skull chanting "go on, go on, go on, go on, go on, go on…" That little voice was going to be the death of him someday. Before he could do anything about it, the larger sledge was off and he was flying behind it hanging on with every muscle in his body as the sledge with the woman passed through the town and then out into the country side.

Every once in a while the woman driving would turn around to look at him and he would smile weakly, she would return the smile and then urge the reindeer pulling the sledge to go faster. Suddenly the Doctor found himself on his back in a snow bank watching his sled careen over the surface of the snow and off of a bridge into the frigid water below. His head fell back into the snow with the breath he didn't know he was holding. That could have ended badly.

Then in dawned on him, it _had_ ended badly. He was at least five miles outside of town, more than that from the TARDIS, and he was lying in a snow bank in the middle of a snow storm, with numb fingers and toes, and no way to tell which direction he had come so as to get back… bollocks, he'd really screwed up this time. Wait, why were his fingers numb? The Doctor did a mental scan of his body and felt real fear set in when he realized one of his hearts had stopped and wasn't about to start up again. 'A shard of the mirror,' he thought with dread as he recognized a piece of the glass lodged deep within him. With a shiver he could almost feel its poison spreading through his veins. If he didn't get back to the TARDIS soon, he might not live through the night…

He thought of Rose looking for him when morning came and organizing search parties when she couldn't find him and the searchers finding his frozen corpse three days later hidden under two feet of snow because he hadn't moved from where he lay. Oh dear Rassilon, he had to get up.

Before the Doctor could muster the will to move the lady he had followed into this situation was leaning over him.

"You're alive." She said, sounding a little annoyed. "That is good."

"You almost killed me!" he cried, staring at her. Something in his head knew that she was just so _wrong_.

"_You_ fell off of the sled." She reasoned. "Come, sit up." She helped him to sit and then pressed a kiss onto his lips.

The Doctor felt the kiss throughout his entire body, not because it was good, but because it was _cold_. The heat drained from his body and he was instantly numb, he couldn't feel anything to move it or to resist her.

"What was that?" he heard himself say.

"You looked cold." She replied. "Do you feel cold now?"

He thought about it. "No."

"Then come, onto my sledge, we have a long way to go before morning breaks."

So he did, because he was absolutely powerless to do anything else.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor woke from a nap that felt more like a coma and found them flying over mountain tops and villages, all of them buried in frost. He shivered a little, realizing that feeling was returning to his body and he felt nothing but cold. His mind was sluggish so he couldn't remember why his body wasn't working the way it was supposed to.

"How are you?" the woman he'd followed asked.

"Cold." He whispered back shivering more violently.

"I suppose that kiss should have worn off by now… tell me do you remember the woman that you were traveling with?" she said glancing at him sideways.

His thoughts immediately snapped back to Rose.

"Rose!" he exclaimed, "I left her back at the hotel…" immediately guilt set in. "She's going to be so worried." He turned to the woman driving. "Take me back!" He demanded pulling out the sonic screwdriver and aiming it at her. "Take me back to Rose right now!"

The woman merely glared at him and in a flurry of movement knocked the sonic screwdriver out of his hand. He watched with horror as it fell towards the nameless woods below.

"What did you do that for?!" the Doctor demanded.

"I don't like weapons pointed at me." The woman replied calmly.

"It wasn't a weapon!"

"You were threatening me with it like it was… Now then, answer my question good Doctor, do you remember a girl named Rose?"

He would ask her how she knew their names later. "Of course I remember Rose, I brought her here!"

The woman gripped him by the collar and pulled him in for another kiss. He immediately felt numb again.

"Let's try this again Doctor, do you know of a girl named Rose Tyler?"

The Doctor's face scrunched up as searched his memories for that name. "No, no I've never met her. The name rings a bell though, Rose Tyler…"

"Good, good." The woman smiled. "Now sleep Doctor, there is a long journey still ahead of us."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Gone

Rose had been woken by the violent pounding on her door.

"Who is it?" she called out, hoping that is was the Doctor finally coming inside for the night. She had been angry, but not _that_ angry.

No one answered. So she hauled herself sleepily out of bed and opened the door. She was surprised to see no one in the hallway. She nearly tripped over the box at her feet when she went to investigate but when she recognized it as the box with her shoes she smiled. She supposed this was the Doctor's equivalent of a peace offering.

She sat on the bed as she opened the box to take another look at the shoes and found his note on top.

"Rose," it read, "Words cannot express how deeply embarrassed I am by my behavior earlier today. Well at least not English words, actually there is a word in Silthinian that covers how I feel right now quite accurately but it wouldn't make any sense if I wrote it down."

He managed to ramble even when he wrote.

"Anyway, I don't usually say sorry, but I do think you deserve it this time. It was rude of me to push you when I knew you were just worried about me, but that's what this regeneration is like isn't it? Rude and not ginger… I didn't mean what I said about you being a stupid girl, or a stupid ape even, I actually think you're quite brilliant, and I am truly, deeply, very sorry. I'll make it up to you, that's a promise. Once we get rid of this sliver of glass in my eye I'll take you to the royal halls of Deganam, and if you really insist I'll try to remember how to dance again so you can have a break from being fawned over by all the men there. Please, forgive me Rose. Very truly yours, The Doctor. "

Rose smiled down at the note, this was about as close to him asking her to dance as she had ever gotten. On a whim she flipped the paper over and her heart stopped.

Written there in capital letters were the words. "HELP ME." Then in tiny scrawled writing half in English half in the circular script she knew from the sticky notes around the consol was a quick description of what had happened. From what she could make out she knew he had been kidnapped, she didn't know by whom, how, or even when he'd had the time to write the note in the first place not to mention get it to her. What she did know was that the Doctor needed her help, and universe be damned if she didn't get to him!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Morning came far too slowly as Rose dashed about the town looking for clues as to where the Doctor could have gotten off to.

After the initial shock she had thought that this might be the crueler side of his sense of humor and had gone off in search of him, but upon returning with no knowledge as to his whereabouts she began to get worried. It wasn't like the Doctor to run off without telling her where he was going… Actually that part was very much like him… It wasn't like him to go off leaving a message asking for help if he didn't really mean it. Rose decided to wait until morning to see if he would show up, on the off chance that this really was some sick joke on his part, and then she'd start looking for him under full daylight and when people who might have seen him depart would be up and about. Yes, that was the right way to go about things.

Rose lay awake for the rest of the night unable to calm herself from thinking that maybe, just maybe, the doctor really was in trouble, and she was wasting precious time by lying here in bed in wait for dawn. She gave up trying to sleep when the ache that told her something was wrong in her stomach became too much to bear and she vomited into the toilet in her bathroom. After cleaning herself up she decided four a.m. local time was morning enough and she showered before dressing in layers and heading to the local police department, or equivalent thereof.

Luckily for Rose the police here took every missing person claim very seriously and agreed to help her start looking right away. Together with four other officers, Rose covered the entire town, going door to door and asking whether or not the inhabitants had seen the Doctor. No one claimed to see him without Rose being present.

On the last street in town Rose had a stroke of luck. They knocked on old Mrs. Haversham's door who answered their summons in her pajamas and immediately said: "You're looking for that man aren't you?"

Rose perked up. "Depends, is this who you're talking about?" She handed the old woman a picture that had been taken at Christmas, of the Doctor grinning madly while sitting at the dinner table with Jackie and Mickey.

"Yes, that's him. The tall skinny fellow, not the other one." The woman replied.

"What can you tell me?" Rose demanded.

"You best forget him my dear, he's gone." The woman's eyes were sad and full of memory.

"What d'you mean gone?"

"You're man was taken by the Snow Queen… she won't be giving him back. So unless you plan on making the journey to her palace you'd best forget him and get back to where you come from." Mrs. Haversham began to close the door in Rose's face but Rose jammed her foot in the door.

"Please, tell me what you know!" Mrs. Haversham stared at the woman in front of her before sighing her consent and letting the girl in.

Rose sat on the old woman's couch sipping at a dainty cup of tea while the old woman babbled about irrelevant things. Rose finally grew impatient and asked her to tell her how to find the Doctor.

Mrs. Haversham sighed again, but began.

"To find the Snow Queen's palace you have to journey about as far north as this planet will allow. I can't tell you what dangers you will face because they no doubt will have changed by now… You see, I attempted the journey myself many years ago. My husband Mr. Haversham, was taken by the Snow Queen too. That would be about forty years ago now… I decided to try the journey north and I did. I fought through the elements and the seasons and made it as far as the tundra… but I was too late. I found my husband's body lying face-up on the ice. He'd been dead three days before I found him; it was seven days after he'd been cast out by the Snow Queen and almost a year since he was taken… You see, once she sees her new companion failing she throws him out of the relative safety of her palace onto the ice. They don't last long after that. Don't go through my pain my dear… don't be forced to drag your sweetheart's body over the ice until you can find enough help to bury him. Don't put yourself in as much danger as you'd have to to find him at all… it isn't worth it, not to simply find him dead…"

Rose was silent, contemplating. "How many times has someone been brought back alive?" She asked quietly after a while.

"Pardon?"

"How many of the women who have gone to find someone have brought that someone back alive?"

The old woman shook her head. "None."

Rose's eyes steeled. "Well, I'm going to."

"But--!"

"No! Mrs. Haversham I am grateful for your advice, and for your concern, but you don't know the Doctor. He's worth the effort. And I would feel awful if I didn't at least try to help him. I've given up on him once before, and he proved me wrong, I'm not going to do that again!"

"I hope you know what you're doing Rose." The old woman shook her head.

"Oh, I do." Rose replied. "I'm not leaving him."

Mrs. Haversham seeing there was nothing for it, gave Rose a map of the northern regions of the planet, complete with the route that she had taken forty years earlier. As Rose went to leave Mrs. Haversham asked her to come back and she'd have some provisions ready for Rose's long journey.

Rose returned to the hotel, grabbed all of her things and checked out of the hotel. It was a short walk to the TARDIS and she was inside the control room when she realized that she needed to pack for a very long trip… crap.

Rose stormed her room in the TARDIS grabbing anything she thought she would desperately need. Soap, shampoo, other toiletries, no makeup, extra socks and underwear, a few changes of clothes, her cell phone, bananas for currency, and an assortment of other things. She found a bag on her bed that she discovered to be Gallifreyan in nature: bigger on the inside. Everything and more was stuffed in this bag and it stayed surprisingly light. Rose smiled at the ceiling and whispered her thanks to the TARDIS. The last thing the TARDIS gave her was a small velvet box with a locket of sorts in it. Rose took a moment to inspect the piece more carefully, noting the swirling patterns on the outside, ones she recognized somewhat from the consol. She opened it carefully and jumped as a hologram of the Doctor appeared in front of her.

"This is emergency protocol number 618." He said staring at the wall behind her.

"Rose," he whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. But I need to ask you to do something very dangerous and hard for me. I need you to rescue me. And I swear if I hear one word out of you about this I'll drop you off at Powell Estates next chance I get and leave you there promise or no, understood?" Rose nodded furiously.

"…what am I talking about? I'd never do that…" he said tugging on his ear. "Anyway- Rose, what I need you to do is rescue me from whatever mess I've gotten myself into. Once you've found me, and done whatever you need to do there, that is where the locket comes in. Then and only then will you open this locket, it has just enough energy to get the TARDIS to whatever location the locket is. This process will be triggered upon opening. So you understand Rose? Do not open this locket unless you're with me in a safe location. Protect this thing with your life; it's the only way for us to get home with any amount of ease. And I may be hurt when you find me so relative ease would be desired." He nodded and seemed to run a mental checklist of anything else he needed to tell her.

"Right, I think that's about it, so I suppose it's about time for you to get going… Again, I'm so sorry to have to put you through this, but there's no other way… well there is but that involves me probably dying, which I know—well I hope you don't want. I rather like this regeneration and depending on the circumstances I may not regenerate at all. So in that situation I'd be dead, ka-put, gone, forever, and we don't want that. Anyway—I'm sure you don't want to stand here and listen to me gab away all day. So I suppose I'll see you soon…" The Doctor looked torn between sadness and hope. "Good luck on your journey and everything. And thank you, for everything. Rose, I…" He sighed, shaking his head. "Be careful. I would feel horrible if anything happened to you while you were trying to get to me… oh! And if I can't make it, if it gets too dangerous, open the locket anyway, the TARDIS will come to you and if I'm not with you when you go in she'll take you back home. I suppose that's it then…" he sniffed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I don't know why I'm keeping you like this; I should be letting you get on with saving me right?" He smiled wistfully. "Truth is… Rose… oh, I'll shut my gob now and let you get on with playing heroine. I can tell you when you get here." He gave her one of his million watt smiled. "See you soon, you'll be brilliant Rose Tyler!"

With that the hologram disappeared and Rose let loose the breath she'd been holding. She took a few shaky breathes before slipping the locket over her head and picking up her bag. She walked through the halls into the consol room and smiled up at the TARDIS.

"I'll call you when and only when I've got him. I promise." She said to the coral, and laid a hand on one of the support beams only to be shocked as someone else's consciousness flooded her mind.

A soft feminine singing filled the back of her skull as another called her name. As she calmed from the sudden shock of being invaded like that she realized who or what was inside her head. The TARDIS offered a sign of friendship and bonding in the form of warm and loving thoughts. Rose accepted them and by instinct offered the ship feelings of her own. The TARDIS accepted those and then offered her reasons for establishing this fairly intimate method of contact in the first place.

The TARDIS flashed emotions in her mind worry, fear, and urgency to find her Timelord.

"I'll find him and bring him home, I promise." She well, thought, more than said.

Then the TARDIS flashed a few images in her mind. Ones that she had gotten courtesy of her deep bond with the Doctor. The images were ones of a beautiful and terrible lady made of ice and snow and all things cold. Next were ones of flying through the air on a sledge to an icy palace. Next came images of people dying from shards of mirror being lodged in them for too long. Then she watched a prediction of the future in which the Doctor began to freeze to death because one of his hearts wasn't working, and because he had a sliver of the mirror in both his eye and his heart. Rose couldn't help but feel a wave of her own fear curl into the TARDIS'.

"Alright," Rose finally said, feeling the TARDIS withdraw from her mind. "I'll do my best."

The last thing Rose did was to pull on her new pair of boots, the Doctor's gift and to button them up carefully, adoring their feeling and warmth. She realized then just how much she wanted the Doctor back, and not just the Doctor, her Doctor, the Doctor whom she'd been traveling with all this time. She wanted her Doctor back in the TARDIS, safe, and lacking any slivers of an evil mirror from his eye and hearts.

Rose exited the TARDIS sadly, wishing that the Doctor's beloved ship, and her own close companion and friend could come with her. Rose locked the door and gave the blue wood a loving stroke before setting off for town once again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mrs. Haversham was waiting for Rose at her door and pulled the girl inside hurriedly.

"Good," she began, "It seems that you're dressed warmly enough…" She began handing Rose packages of long-lasting food, and a purse of coins, all of which Rose shoved into the bag at her side.

"Now then Rose," the elderly woman said guiding her back to the door. "You must journey north until you've met winter again…"

"What?"

"It will make sense when you get there, trust me. Then you must follow the North Star until night and then enter the gorge. Enter the palace at morning but leave by sunset. Follow these directions precisely and you may find your Doctor and _you_ might get out alive at least… I for one have no hope for your man…" The elderly woman looked at her wistfully. "I wish you all the luck in the universe though… Oh how you remind me of myself when I was young… perhaps you'll have more luck than I did… I hope you will, I very much hope you will." Rose hugged the woman and stepped out the door into the noon daylight. As Rose stepped off Mrs. Haversham's porch the old woman called her back.

"Rose, one last thing! Make sure you get to him before the Winter Festival next year… if you don't, and if he's still alive, then he's lost to you forever…"

"Why's that?"

"Because that's what the Snow Queen has been waiting for… a man who can survive a year with her. If he can, then she will force him to stay with her forever. Don't be surprised if he doesn't remember you when you first get there… that's part of her power! And make sure to follow your gut!"

Rose waved back at the older woman with a yell of "thanks!" before she turned back and fully began on her journey into the north.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When the Doctor regained consciousness the first thing he noticed was his discomfort. Not at his position or where he was, but at how cold it was; a bone-deep sort of cold. A feeling in the back of his mind told him he really shouldn't be feeling this cold…

"Rose" he chattered out, hoping that she would grab him a cup of tea or a blanket or even snuggle up with him in an attempt to get him warm.

A figure moved above him and looked at him curiously before leaning down and pressing a kiss to his lips. The cold immediately dispersed into numbness and his thoughts of the warm, kind, and caring Rose fled, leaving him wondering what he had been thinking of only a second ago. He decided he didn't care as he descended into dreamless sleep once again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rose had followed her nose about five miles out of town and she stopped on a bridge crossing a river below. She watched the water rush by for a few moments before she felt the urge to do something incredibly reckless.

"River." She spoke softly, then she chastised herself, "I've lost it, m' speakin' to a river… I've finally gone nutty."

But when she looked back down at the rushing water she tried again. "River, I demand that you lead me to the Doctor! I'll give you my beautiful boots if you'll bring me to him!" She slipped out of her shoes and stood in stocking clad feet in the snow. She climbed up onto the rail of the bridge and tossed in her shoes and watched as they floated away -- up stream…

Rose's breath hitched, and she didn't spare a second thought to climbing over the guard rail and preparing herself for an icy plunge. She felt herself fall and closed her eyes as the icy water gobbled up her feet, her knees, her neck, and finally her head. She knew no more for a long time.

A/N: Please review!


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Springtime

Rose didn't know how long she'd been floating up the river, or how she even knew she was going up river. She knew it was guiding her somewhere, to someone, but not why, or how. So she barely noticed the change in the floating peacefulness as she finally washed up on the river bank.

"Little girl?" a voice called, a voice like honey, and sweetness and sunshine. "Little girl, what's happened to you!?"

A face swam into focus as Rose opened her eyes.

"There you are my darling! No need to leave this world yet! You're still in the springtime of life! Come into my cottage. Have some of my ripest cherries and then play in my garden for a while!"

Rose lifted herself from the water, relying heavily on the woman's surprising strength. She was shivering from the cold as she made her way up to the woman's cottage.

"I've been expecting you… you're boots arrived a short while ago!" The woman was clothed in the brightest colored, most flowery fabric Rose had ever seen. She also wore a large sun hat for gardening that was absolutely covered in flowers as well. She looked young and old at the same time, her hair bright and colorful under her hat, and her eyes bright, but fine crow's feet and laugh lines framed her features pleasantly. As Rose stepped in through the woman's front gate she felt lighter, as if the worries of her journey just begun were melting away.

The woman led her inside and sat her in a chair, dropping a towel on Rose's head unceremoniously before scrubbing out the icy water.

"What is your name, little girl? I can hardly keep calling you that!"

"Rose." Rose replied. "My name is Rose…"

The woman stopped stone-still for a minute. "Rose, what a lovely name… I'll just be a moment."

With that the woman stepped outside to hide all of the roses in her garden underground, carefully beginning to weave a spell over her new-found daughter. A spell that would make her forget, forget her name, forget her previous life, forget her family, forget anyone and anything she'd ever loved. Make her mind a clean slate for the Spring Witch to write over.

"Well then Rose, my dearest, how about I comb out your tangled hair, and then you can go in for a nap?"

"As nice as tha' sounds," replied Rose politely, "I really have to go… I've got to find the Doctor. Maybe you've seen him? He's tall, and skinny, wears a pin-stripe suit, and has some -- well really _great_ hair."

"No, no doctors here my little lilly!" The woman said beginning to pull a comb through Rose's hair. "Is this another one of your pretend games? Really my girl, you'll have to slow down! My imagination can't keep up with yours!"

"Lilly? But my name is Rose." Rose corrected the woman; it was beginning to become increasingly hard for Rose to keep her eyes open the more the woman played with her hair. Rose tried to stifle a yawn.

"Oh! Lilly, are you sleepy? Silly me, it's your nap time isn't it? Off to bed with you my little girl, off to bed!"

"But, I have to--!"

"Bed now, Lilly!" the woman said sternly, pointing her finger at the door opposite the table.

Rose—er, Lilly was forced to obey. She stood, shuffled to her bedroom, and snuggled into the most divine feeling bed she'd ever had the pleasure of sleeping in… in fact, Rose—er, Lilly had a hard time remembering if she'd ever slept anywhere else ever in her life…

"Good night, Lilly." The woman said cheerfully.

"Good night mummy." Lilly replied snuggling further into the pillows and falling into a deep, deep sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The TARDIS was anxious. He could feel it.

He imagined her cloister bell was gonging loudly throughout her halls and he wondered what could possibly be wrong. She was safely nestled away in the woods with a newly fixed perception filter, and he and Rose were… were… oh, bollocks.

The Doctor woke fully for the first time in what was probably months.

The TARDIS' nervousness invaded his mind and flashed pictures of Rose sleeping in a flowery bed, her cheeks rosy and her face content and child-like.

'And what's wrong with that?' he growled back to his ship, irritated for interrupting his sleep, he was cold again, and wanted something to eat… like a banana, a nice shot of potassium would be good right now. So he searched his pockets for one.

The TARDIS made her equivalent of an exasperated sigh, and mentally slapped him. She flashed images from a time line of Rose rescuing him from a certain frozen death.

'Why would I want to be rescued?' He huffed.

The TARDIS felt gob smacked, 'Do you have any idea what you're saying?' she insinuated. Then flashed some more images this time of himself in the present, shivering and looking a right bit pitiful.

He sighed audibly before adding in his mind. 'I'm alright, I will be alright! Now please just leave me alone?'

He felt her heartache and realized what he'd said, but when he tried to apologize to her he found her consciousness cut off from him, bollocks again.

Only then did the Doctor take in his surroundings. He was in a huge room, made entirely of… ice. He checked. And he had no idea where he was, or how to get back to where he should be. The Doctor felt a twang of complete loneliness when he realized the TARDIS had withdrawn completely from his mind. The entire time he'd been gone thus far, he'd known she was in his mind, keeping tabs on his location, his well being, his mental state, and his ability to translate languages… all of that was gone now, or so it would seem. The Doctor pulled his legs up to his chest in an effort to warm himself and sighed shakily into his knees.

Then the visions of Rose the TARDIS had shown him registered in his mind, she was in trouble. She was now as trapped as he, only she was trapped by the Spring Witch. He hoped that the TARDIS could manage to wake her from the spell, otherwise he was doomed. In this moment he was lucid, but soon his mind would impercieveably shift under the spell of the Snow Queen and under the influence of the mirror shards. He knew that the only thing he could do now was wait, and pray to a being he didn't believe in that Rose would find a way to regain lucidity, remember herself, and get away before it was too late.

Dangerously, he fell into a slumber again but this time with purpose rather than fatigue. He reached out for the TARDIS and she reluctantly reestablished their link, one too lonely without the other for either to be angry for long. This time the Doctor asked the TARDIS to help Rose to remember herself any way she could.

Just one sensory cue was all it would take. One cue and Rose would wake up.

The Doctor realized that this was the same sort of thing he would need to last in his time here in the ice palace, so he asked the TARDIS to send him something that would keep him lucid for longer.

She obliged, and the Doctor smiled a bit when he woke up and a single rose blossom lay next to his face. The Doctor took the delicate flower and gently pushed it into the hidden pocket in his jacket, then promptly jumped to his feet when a noise came from a little ways off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Doctor!" Rose woke with a cry.

"What was that dear?" her mother called.

"Nothing mummy." Lilly replied lying back against her pillows, her blonde hair wreathing her head in a halo of gold. Lilly looked to the window that was pouring sunlight over her face with disdain, but froze as a pile of bright red and pink flowers sat curled around the sill.

Lilly didn't hear her mother come into the room, feeling the stirrings of memories press painfully at the front of her mind. Rose, rose, rose, the word would not cease in her head, a mantra chanted by frustratingly familiar voices, rose, rose, rose.

A woman in the room shrieked suddenly and the roses shrank away in fear.

"Lilly!" the woman demanded. "Look at me! Are you alright my sweet?"

Lilly was silent for a moment, "Tha's not my name…" she whispered.

"What?" her mother asked, dread settling in her stomach.

"Lilly… That's not my name!" she cried. "You… you're not my mum! My name is Rose! My mum is Jackie Tyler! I was looking for the Doctor! What am I doing here!? What have you done!?" Rose was becoming hysterical, and thrashed out.

"Oh my darling," the woman tutted, "You've just had a bad dream. Here let me comb the knots out of your sleepy hair?"

The woman did just that, and Rose—no, Lilly felt herself calm down, and settle into her sweet mother's touch.

"Here now Lilly, you've slept long enough… why don't you go enjoy the sunshine of the garden? I plucked away all those evil weeds that you hated so much… Go play while I make us some supper?"

Lilly leapt from her bed and ran giggling into the garden to play.

As the day wore on Lilly passed time swinging from a tree branch and then gazing at the clouds in the sky. After dinner she and her mother lay in the back garden hammock watching the sunset turn the sky to an indigo velvet cloak and they waited for the diamond stars to appear.

When night had fully descended, Lilly couldn't help but stare transfixed at the stars, something about them stirred something deep within her. 'Time and space' a man's voice repeated, 'It travels in time and space.'

Lilly turned to look at her mother and was shocked when a light from the window had fallen across her mother's gardening hat, illuminating one small flower amid all the others. A single blood-red rose.

"Rose." Lilly whispered under her breath. "Rose Tyler." And suddenly she remembered everything.

Cautiously Rose lifted herself from the hammock.

"Where are you going love?" asked the old witch with a voice like honey.

"Oh, just to get my doll mummy." Rose replied, mimicking her ensorcelled self.

Rose searched the tiny cottage for her bag, her beautiful boots, and the locket. She needed to move quickly now, she'd no idea how much time had passed since she'd come here.

Rose stepped out onto the front path quietly and made her way down the brick walkway without so much as a scuff of her heel. But she let out an 'oof' as prickly vines wrapped their way around Rose's ankles and drew her to the ground.

"Sister dear, sister dear." Musical voices called in her mind.

"What are you?" Rose cried.

"We are the roses that have been hidden under the ground for so very long. We are the ones the Springtime Witch hid away so she could keep you close. We wish to help you now."

"If you've been underground then answer me this… how long have you been underground? And have you seen the Doctor? Is he in the land of the dead too?"

The roses thought for a moment. "We have been in the ground since middle-winter; it is now middle-spring. The Sringtime Witch is losing power so we were able to come up to help you now. We are sorry we could not sooner… As for the Doctor we have not seen him, not in the land of the dead." Rose felt her heart soar with joy; she wasn't out of time yet.

"His TARDIS, by this Doctor's wishes, was the one who pulled us from the ground the first time you tried to remember yourself."

Rose felt herself smile that meant the shard of mirror in his heart hadn't completely corrupted him yet; he was still holding on, and he would still help her if he could.

"Just where do you think you are going?" a less-than-honeyed voice cut Roses' thoughts.

The roses around her ankles shrank back fearing their mistress' wrath. Rose stood tall and proud when the thorny branches untangled from her ankles.

"'m leaving now. I have to find the Doctor. Thank you, for taking care of me, but I really have to go."

The old witch sighed. "Well then at least let me make you some sandwiches for your journey… here come inside…" she held out her hand to Rose, but Rose recoiled.

"If I do then you'll never let me leave! I'm sorry; I have to go, now."

Rose pulled her boots from the bag and fastened them on her feet. Just before she could step outside the gate the Spring Witch stopped her once again.

"Rose, wait." All of the magic was out of her voice and it sounded disappointed.

Rose turned to look at the woman. The woman stared back at Rose as if to appraise her.

"You really think you can best my sister?"

"The Snow Queen?"

"Yes."

"I- I don't know yet, probably not. But I've done impossible things before. Why can't I do another?"

"There's a light behind your eyes that burns like the sun…" the old woman said. "It might be enough to melt my sister's power… but not by yourself. She has taken the Doctor as her newest consort yes?"

"I think so."

"Then you'll need all the help you can get to break her spell… Very well, be off with you." The old woman said with the flick of her wrist. "But be wary my two other sisters, the Summer Princess, and the Autumn Thief. They will attempt to trick you into staying with them as I have… but I'll give you this charm to help you see through their deceptions, as you've seen through mine."

With that she handed Rose the bud of a snowdrop from her garden.

"Keep this with you, and no one will be able to pull the wool over your eyes."

"Why're you helpin' me?" Rose asked, genuinely puzzled.

"I have been alive for a very long time Rose, I was created to control the essence of Spring on this world, but this planet is far from its sun. The warmer seasons of the year are losing power faster than they can absorb it from the sun… My sister the Autumn Thief and I suffer the most from this, our seasons are dreadfully short already, and it isn't our younger sister the Summer Princess that makes up for the lost time, she is too busy trying to get enough sunlight for herself. It is the Snow Queen who is eating up our power. This must stop, for all of the seasons have their purpose, and all of the seasons must be balanced to fulfill those purposes. If the Snow Queen is allowed to continue the way she is now there may not be a Springtime next year… You and your Doctor's TARDIS were strong enough to escape my spells, together you might be able to free the Doctor and then all of you might be able to restore balance to Skadi. Rose, tell me one thing?"

"What?"

"What is he, your Doctor? My roses saw inside your mind, you and the TARDIS, and they tell me about what they saw. I've never heard of anyone or anything like the Doctor on Skadi before, so what is he?"

"He's a Timelord, he's the last Timelord, all the others got killed in a war. He let me travel with him and I have ever since. We go everywhere, and s'wonderful." Rose paused, horrified with herself. "You made me say all that!" she accused. "You got inside my head and made me say it!"

"Yes, I did. Don't deny an old witch her pleasures my dear…Timelord." The Spring Witch said, "I will remember the name, and I will bless it if you succeed. The Doctor and Rose Tyler, in his TARDIS sailing across the stars… just as it should be it would seem… One more thing, the Doctor is under the spell of both the Snow Queen and the mirror of deception, there is only one thing that can help him now."

"What's that?" Rose's heart skipped a beat or two.

The old woman smiled, "Tea."

"Wait, what?"

"Yes, a good cup of tea. It will warm him up nicely… But it won't hurt that you're there. Your love for him is most noble, and this courage of yours will see you through, I'm sure of it."

"But I'm not in lo—" Rose protested blushing furiously.

"Rose." The old woman said sternly. "If you weren't in love with him you wouldn't be making this journey at all now would you? It wouldn't be worth the dangers."

"Thank you, for everything." Rose said, and she meant it too.

"Go, get out of my garden, it is high time for Spring to pass into Summer anyway…"

Rose finally emerged from the Spring Witch's garden and continued on her long journey north with a few steps out of the gate.

"Good luck my little girl, you're going to need it…"


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry this took me so long, I had major writer's block. The next chapter will be out faster since it's already half done.

Chapter 4: A Midsummer Night's Dream

Rose had been wandering through the same patch of forest for a little over a week now and she felt hopelessly lost even with the help of a map. She wasn't holding it upside-down, she'd checked for that after the first time realizing she was going in circles. Then she had adjusted her course and still, that little town that she could just catch glimpses of through the trees was nestled a few miles away, and that mountain range was still a hazy little patch of blue in the distance.

Rose wanted to scream. So she did. She screamed and threw down the map and crouched down running her hands over her face until the angry tears stopped coming. She also felt much better after doing so.

Hiccupping slightly from the exertion of her fit, she slumped down against the trunk of a tree and decided to see exactly how long her rations would last her before she had to resort to eating wild berries and praying they weren't the poisonous kind. She could almost hear the Doctor's voice chastising her for acting like a child—well, to him she probably was a child. Twenty-one, to Nine-hundred-something, was still an awfully large age gap no matter how young he looked since regenerating.

Rose sighed, why was she thinking about this right now?

Her love life was not the most eventful since hitching a ride with the Doctor, and she'd neglected Mickey in the most awful ways, something she honestly felt terrible about. So here she sat, in the middle of nowhere, on a planet about fifty light-years from home, trying to save the only man in the universe who could possibly take her back to Earth to see her mum again, not to mention she was also desperately in love with said man, alien, person, whatever…

Over the course of her walk, she'd come to accept the fact that she was in love with the Doctor and not care whether or not strangers could read her like an open book. It'd been a little over a month since she'd left the Spring Witch's home and she had done a lot of thinking on the way. She hadn't even noticed that she'd left all of her Winter clothes at the old woman's house until it was too late, so she was now sporting a rather flowery sun-dress that looked like it belonged more in Alice in Wonderland than on an alien planet. She was lucky though, it wasn't cold yet, in fact it was getting warmer every day, but she would definitely need to pick something up for the Winter months the next time she reached civilization…

'If I can make it there by Winter.' She thought cynically, munching on a bit of jerky she'd bought in the last town.

"Hellooooo down there!" A voice cut through the peaceful silence of the woods.

Rose jumped up startled and spat out her food.

"Who's there!?" she demanded brandishing the butter knife that she had "borrowed" from an inn a while back.

"Up here!" the voice called again. "In the tree!"

Rose looked up, and in the branches of the fir tree she'd been sitting under sat a plump crow.

This was obviously no ordinary crow; it wore a black velvet cap complete with a gold feather sticking out of the top, and a gold sash that was tied below its right wing.

"Hello my lady." The crow said in surprisingly good English, he had a shrill sort of hoarse voice like one would expect a crow to have, but his words were as clear as a bell despite the lack of lips and teeth.

"Eh..." Rose said shifting her weight. "Hi. What are you, now?"

The crow looked as indignant as a crow could look. "I'm a crow!" it replied with a scoff.

"Yeah, I can see that, but how can you talk?"

"Why can I talk? Well for the same reason you can, to make conversation!"

"'kay then…" Rose was debating in her mind which would be the better course of action: slapping herself awake from a dream or bashing her head against the tree to clear the madness. This crow was most definitely not here, and more than that, he was most definitely _not_ talking to her.

She must have spoken aloud because the crow replied:

"Yes, I am here, and yes I can talk. You're not crazy my lady…"

"Okay Rose, you really have fallen into Wonderland…" Rose muttered to herself.

"Who are you talking to?" The crow inquired. "Do you have a flower as a travelling companion?"

"Huh?" Rose gaped, then in dawned. "No, that's my name, Rose Tyler."

"Enchanted, Rose Tyler, I am named Oilwing… Silvercaw Oilwing." Replied the crow swooping down to the ground before Rose and gave her a clumsy bow.

Rose smiled. "Nice to meet you too. But listen, do you think you could give me a hand?"

Silvercaw looked forlorn. "Regretably Rose Tyler, I do not have hands."

"Oh, no, that's just an expression. It means could you help me? I've been lost in these woods for ages and I really need to get to the Northern Tundra before the Winter Solstice. I'm trying to get to the palace of the Snow Queen."

Silvercaw Oilwing seemed to ponder this for a moment. "I can't say _I_ know the way. But I have a sweetheart who works at the palace of the Summer Princess and _her majesty_ sounds like the right person to ask. _Summer Princess, Snow Queen,_ they must be related somehow. Follow me; I'll take you to see her!"

Rose was too overjoyed to be making some progress than to worry over the fact that the Spring Witch had warned her to be wary of the Summer Princess, and that the crow was saying something about a Mid-summer Ball.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Here you are, safe and sound." Cawed Silvercaw Oilwing when the palace was in sight.

"Thank you!" Rose said as she began to traverse the distance left to the palace.

"When you get to the door, Golden-child," Silvercaw addressed her with the name he had given her on their walk through the woods. "Tell them that you are looking for Daisywing who is a serving-maid in the great hall. She's my sweetheart; so when you meet her tell her I sent you."

"S'that simple, yeah?" Rose looked incredulous.

"Quite."

"'kay then, thanks for the help!" Rose called starting off towards the palace again.

"Good luck Golden-girl! I hope you find what it is that you are looking for!"

Rose shot a grin back at the bird before he disappeared into the tops of the trees.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Who are you?" said the Guard at the palace gates.

"M'name's Rose. M'here to speak with the Summer Princess?" Rose stood before the gates looking terribly small and child-like. Her dress was in need of a burning, nevermind repair.

"Do you have an appointment?" A second guard asked, appraising her over the rims of his tortoise-shell glasses.

"Well, no but—" Rose stammered.

The guards sighed. "Well you can't get in to see the Summer Princess without an appointment."

"Right then, so how do I get an appointment?"

"From the Summer Princess." They answered in unison.

"Let me get this straight," Rose said feeling more than a little miffed. "You can only see the Summer Princess with an appointment. But the only way to get an appointment is to see the Summer Princess…"

"That is correct."

Rose rolled her eyes and muttered, "And the Doctor says humans from Earth are difficult…" Then she remembered the directions given to her by Oilwing Silvercaw.

"Well, what if I just wanted to visit a friend who works as a serving-girl in the Great Hall? Her name's Daisycaw—I mean Daisywing."

The guards looked at each other.

"Yeah, that'd be alright." They said and parted the halberds and iron gates blocking her path.

"Now that was almost too easy." Rose whispered to herself as she stepped into the gardens of the palace.

The gardens looked like something out of a medieval tapestry, minus the unicorns. Everything was in bloom and green and growing. Rose found herself wandering into a maze of shrubberies and hopelessly lost by the time that another crow flew down and perched itself on a branch not too far from her head.

"Word has it you wanted to see me, though I'm sorry miss, but I can't say I know you."

"Actually your sweetheart, Oilwing, sent me."

"Did he? Oh, bless him."

"He helped guide me here. He said that you could help me get an audience with the Summer Princess."

The crow tilted her head back and forth a few times. "I suppose it could be arranged. But you may need to disguise yourself as a serving girl during tonight's banquet to get an audience.

Rose nodded furiously. "Yeah, fine. I'll do whatever you want."

"Oh," said the crow. "You're going to regret saying that…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few hours later that day Rose found herself in an outfit that looked suspiciously like one of the pictures in her old French textbooks of traditional Breton costumes. Well, it was certainly better than a dinner lady…

While working in the kitchens Daisywing told Rose that this banquet was being throw by the Summer Princess for her daughter, who was named June. The Summer Princess aimed to find a suitable suitor for her daughter before June had the chance to elope with her beloved, who was a polar bear but claimed he was really a prince from the kingdom just outside the Summer Forest. The story went that he had been turned into a polar bear by the Snow Queen. The man—bear had also gone missing a few days ago.

The kitchens were a hot busy place filled with the smells of cooking spices and delicious foods. However, all of the serving maids seemed like they were simply performing their tasks without registering what they were doing. Their faces were blank and their eyes dull. Rose commented on this to Daisywing who in turn told Rose that this was the spell of the Summer Princess. She could keep everyone in a contented fog and therefore get away with paying them far less than she should for their services.

"Why aren't you like them?" Rose asked.

"I'm a crow, and crows are immune to the turning of the seasons. I work here because I want to, and I get paid in full because the Summer Princess can't pull the wool over my eyes. It's not fair to those poor girls I realize, but there are those strong enough to resist her powers, like the head chef, and you for example."

"What do you mean by you're immune to the turn of the seasons." Rose had realized a while back that she was starting to ask questions in a manner similar to that of the Doctor, finding that it was the best way to find answers.

"We crows naturally stay in one place all year 'round without change: Winter, Summer, Spring, and Fall. Temperature and snow or thawing and sun make no difference to us. Most humans however have a preference for the warmer days of the year, and huddle inside their homes all Winter long, ergo, they are affected by the Summer Princess' spell, and I am not. The Summer Princess is of a very frugal nature. Giving only what she sees fit and little more. But her spells keep people happy with her because they find her affections outweigh her faults."

When Rose finally made it into the Great Hall to start serving the guests, she was shocked to find that the hall was lavishly decorated with flowers, garlands, and all the most beautifully things Rose could think off, she had expected the palace to be a stone fortress and little more. Every other room she'd seen thus far besides the gardens were strictly utilitarian in nature. Due to Daisywing's gossip about the ball, Rose was not surprised to see that all but the serving maids, June, and the Summer Princess herself, that all in attendance were men. Fine-looking, rich-looking, young men. As Rose watched, each one would be introduced to the Summer Princess' daughter and would bow ceremoniously, June would give a polite curtsey or nod her head, but overall the poor girl looked frustrated and bored.

Dancing eventually broke out and June was twirled around the floor by almost everyman in attendance. Some of the noble princes even took to dragging a scullery maid out onto the dance floor simply because there was no one else. A few of the more "flexible" men even managed to pull another nobleman out to enjoy the music. Rose simply stood along the wall, inching her way closer and closer to the dais where the Summer Princess watched over the evening's proceedings with a benevolent eye.

The Summer Princess was by no doubt one of the most beautiful women Rose had ever seen. She had rich brown hair that tumbled down to her knees when she stood, and sparkling green eyes that held a certain gentle happiness behind them at all times. Her robes were made of silk and ermine and velvet in a rich concoction of scarlets, indigos, and emeralds. Gold adorned the trim of her gown and a heavily bedazzled crown sat firmly above a perfectly arched brow. Her face was both young and old at once, and her skin sported a healthy golden glow that Rose could only compare to how many people described women who were pregnant. Every once in a while her laugh would break over the sound of the ensemble playing this planet's classical masterpieces, and the sound couldn't help but grace all who heard it with a warm, happy feeling. Rose knew this was simply a being made to represent the season of Summer but she couldn't help but feel a bit drawn in by the woman.

Rose blinked several times and her hand moved unconsciously to her pocket where the snow-drop charm from the Spring Witch lay hidden. Suddenly Rose saw a flash of the Spring Witch's face, and the old woman's voice saying, "don't let them pull the wool over your eyes, my girl." Rose shook her head free of the spell that had been slowly wrapping its way around her mind like a drunken haze from a good vintage of cider.

When Rose's mind finally cleared she realized that the Summer Princess had risen to accept the arm of a courtier and let him lead her to the dance floor. At this same moment June had escaped from a pack of princes vying for her attention long enough to flop gracelessly into her seat and then proceed to massage her aching feet.

Rose studied the girl and noted the differences between mother and daughter. June was much shorter than her mother, and a fair bit skinnier. Rose would compare her to the willowy appearance of a fashion model, all arms and legs, and a neck like a swan. However for all of her gracefully constructed limbs, June seemed to have no proper sense of control over them. Rose had watched her dancing and had winced as June botched up what Rose reckoned was supposed to be a waltz. June was very beautiful in her features as well, bright blue eyes with a sparkle of slight mischief and unending kindness, a long straight nose, gracefully curved lips. Overall the girl looked perfect, but moved more like a baby giraffe.

"You alright?" Rose was shaken from her silent observing by June's voice.

"What?" Rose garbled, this was definitely not her moment of eloquence.

"I asked if you were alright." June repeated with a concerned smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine… just takin' in all the…" Rose trailed off, turning her face back to the swirl of dancing colors.

"You are new here aren't you?" June commented. "I noticed you enter the great hall this evening, but I figured you were new, considering I know all of the serving maids, or at least I did, until you showed up."

There was a bit of silence.

"So why did you come here?" June asked.

"What do you mean?" replied Rose, startled by the girl's spot-on perception.

"Well, I know for a fact that my mother hasn't hired any new serving girls since the last banquet, and most people only sneak into the Summer Palace when they want something from us. So, what do you want?"

Rose stared at June for a long moment. She seemed trustworthy enough. "I need to speak with your mother… I need information about the Snow Queen."

Suddenly everything in the Great Hall stopped dead.

"Who dares mention the name of my sister in my hall!?" The Summer Princess moved with inhuman speed up to the dais and was suddenly looking down her expertly sculpted nose at Rose.

Rose felt her words catch in her throat when she noticed the unbridled fury in the woman's eyes.

"Um…" Definitely, not her most eloquent day.

"Prohibition of speaking my sisters' name aloud in my hall is one of the fundamental rules of my keep! But you wouldn't know that would you, Rose Tyler, since you do not work here?"

Rose held the woman's gaze but her eyes grew to the size of saucers.

"Yes, I know who you are, my sister, the Spring Witch, told me all about you… she sent me word that if I harmed even one hair on your head that she would deal with me personally. I honestly do not see how she can do that as she is trapped in that pitiful cottage of hers just as I am trapped behind the stone walls of my palace! Still, she told me why you have come and that you might be able to help us with our… problem. Again, I don't see how as you are so…" the woman sucked on her tongue as she wrestled for the right word. "Human…"

Rose finally found her voice again.

"I've come here because I'm trying to rescue a man called the Doctor from the Snow Queen's palace. He's very important to the universe and—"

"Yes, I know who he is… But I have little care for the universe outside of my world. Why should I care for it? It has nothing to do with me."

"Because if something's wrong with the universe than your world would be in danger too!" Rose said, growing bolder. "Because _he_ is the only man in the universe who can put an end to the tyranny of your sister, the Snow Queen! You should care because he is the only man who can find a way to turn your daughter's boyfriend back into a man, and he is the only man who can stop you from drugging all of those poor girls who work in the kitchen!"

The Summer Princess raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow at Rose. "I think a better name for you would be Snapdragon, or Tiger Lilly, nothing as innocent or demure as _Rose." _The Princess took a moment to breathe and to stare Rose in the eye and see if she wavered. She didn't. "Though all roses do have their thorns, yes? Very well Rose, I'll give you what help I can. Though mark my words, I do not do this for you, or even for my daughter. I do this for me and my people, so that I may walk through the woods beyond my palace walls once more and spread rays of sunshine and summer over this icy planet, as is the natural order of things."

"S'fine with me." Rose countered. "I'm not doing this for you either."

The Summer Princess smirked knowingly. "The Snow Queen flew over my woods to gloat after enchanting your Doctor; my spies say that he is a handsome man, one worthy of even my daughter."

Rose saw June roll her eyes from her place behind her mother.

"They say he might even have the power to help the Snow Queen succeed in her plans should he succumb to her charms."

"What's that then?" Rose asked.

The Summer Princess frowned, but not at Rose. "She aims to gain dominion over this planet. To make it so that we are in a perpetual state of Winter. We four sisters of the seasons draw power from our respective times of the year to keep the natural balance. Normally, each of us have one quarter of the year to rule, and during part of our time we are so powerful that we can leave our homes and wander over the world to spread the gifts of our seasons to other kingdoms. What my sister has done thus far is slowly spend all of her powers making her season last longer. The longer she makes Winter last, the more power she has, which she then uses to gain more time. She seeks to make it so that my other sisters and I age and die. You have already seen her effect on the Spring Witch who now appears to be much older than she should. The Autumn Robber is also beginning to show signs physically that the Snow Queen's plots are working. It starts with being caged to your own home… this is the first year that I am unable to journey outside this palace's walls. This is why it is so important to stop her, Rose. Winter is not meant to last all year long, it isn't natural. The time for the planting and harvesting of crops is quickly growing shorter, and the time to allow them to grow is being challenged. This world will wither and die if the Snow Queen is allowed to succeed. Unfortunately, since I am now caged here I cannot be the one to stop her."

"Why can't you leave?"

"As I said before, my power comes from the heart of Summer, and the heart of Summer lies here in my palace. If I leave with too little power I will cease to be, and the season of Summer will share the same fate."

"'Kay, yeah this is worse than someone just kidnapping the Doctor." Rose mumbled to herself.

"It is, Rose." The Summer Princess said. "It is very much worse indeed. Every living creature on the planet is in great peril. Once the crops lose the chance to grow, the planet will simply starve to death, until only the Snow Queen remains."

"There's one thing I still don't get though."

"And what would that be?"

"What's the Doctor got to do with it? Why does the Snow Queen keep on kidnapping men?"

"It's because she's lonely I suppose."

"That's it?!"

"Yes, she lives in the coldest part of the Northern Tundra in a palace made of ice. Humans cannot survive there for long, she steals plenty of them for servants but they wither and die, the only company she truly has are the wolves and polar bears who guard the palace. Not exactly good conversationalists."

"She's just lonely?"

"Yes. We sisters of the seasons are not meant to be alone. If we are alone for more than a turning of the year we go mad. Just look at the Spring Witch, she is desperate for a companion and kidnapped you. However, your connection to the TARDIS and your devotion to the Doctor saved you. "

"Then what did you mean by, the Doctor might 'have the power to help with her plans?'"

"The Doctor is a Time Lord, as I understand it. Rose, I honestly can't even begin to imagine how you put up travelling with that man, but I'm willing to peg it on ignorance."

"What d'you mean?"

"Rose, that man is the most powerful being in all of creation, aside from his TARDIS, and his TARDIS would do anything for him. Do you understand me?"

Rose shook her head no; though she suddenly felt as if she didn't know the man she was looking for at all.

"The problem is you see him as a man, and why shouldn't you? He eats, sleeps, walks, and breathes like a man. This is the only mould you can fit him into, but he doesn't fit it very well does he? You do not have the knowledge of what a Time Lord is, what a Time Lord truly is, therefore you cannot fathom it, and therefore, you have no fear of the being you travel with. I have a feeling this is the reason the Doctor likes humans so much. They see him looking like a human, and automatically they assume he is human. They include him into their club. You wouldn't know from looking at him that is he what he is, therefore why would you suspect it? Rose, you have heard him referred to as the 'Oncoming Storm' have you not?"

"Yes."

"There is a reason for it. He did things during the last Time War that would make you run away from him screaming and never once look back. Albeit he didn't do these things by choice, but just knowing he has the power to do so would make you run far, far away."

Rose was silent was she contemplated this, but then she spoke:

"I think I'd stay."

"Pardon?" the Princess looked startled.

"Knowing what I know, and knowing him, I'd stay with him, no matter what he did during the war. War's a terrible thing, and it changes a person. And I may not know the Doctor, or his history like you do, but I do know him well enough to know that he would never let _me_ get hurt. He may not be human, but he needs a friend just like you and your sisters. Cause 'it's better with two,' and I'm gonna stay with him for as long as I can. I'm gonna hold his hand 'till I don't have a hand for him to hold anymore, because I do know this: It keeps him sane, it keeps him grounded, and it keeps him fighting. He may be the most powerful being in the universe, but I'm his… well, I don't know what the word is, but he told me he wasn't gonna leave me behind, that I could stay with him as long as I wanted. So I know I mean _something_ to him, even if it is just as a hand for him to hold."

"I'm going with you."

All eyes turned to the Summer Princess' daughter, June.

"I'm going with you," The girl repeated, "To the Northern Tundra."

"Nonsense June!" Her mother cried. "I won't allow it."

"Try and stop me then! You can't leave the palace, but I can. Mother, it would be best this way! If Rose fails perhaps I will succeed!"

"June it's too dangerous for you!"

"Who knows the way through the Robber's forest better than me? Yes, it'll be dangerous, but Rose and I can watch out for each other, and furthermore she needs a guide!"

The Summer Princess frowned even more.

"You just want to go and find that polar bear…"

June sighed in frustration and strode up to her mother. June knelt at the Summer Princess' feet and clasped her mother's hands.

"First of all," June said, "He's not a polar bear. Second, yes I do want to find him. Third, Mother, I want to help _you!_ I hate seeing you confined to this place as much as you hate _being_ confined here. Please mother, let me help you, let me help Rose!"

For a moment the Summer Princess did not look like the embodiment of the seasons, and for a shining moment, she just looked like a mother.

"What if you get hurt?" she said.

"Then I can come home saying that I've lived!"

The Summer Princess sighed, then spoke, still gripping her daughter's hands. "Very well, you shall be Rose's guide to the Snow Queen's palace. You will both leave tomorrow morning."

A murmur went around the hall, June smiled and pressed a kiss to her mother's hand, and then stood to kiss her cheek.

"Thank you, mother." She said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That night, after being escorted to a guest room Rose lay down to sleep and dreamed.

She dreamed of a camp, with gypsies all twirling and singing around a fire-pit. Flashes of crimson and amber flashed through her mind. As the image faded to black Rose barely registered the sounds of breathing next to her ear, and the feeling as it puffed gently over her cheek. Rose couldn't see anyone but she could feel someone next to her, and she could feel her heart galloping in her chest, because of fear or something else she couldn't be sure. Warmth was spread across her body and everything felt heavy with sleep and sore from use. Her eyes were focused on a candle burning happily on a table near where she lay. Rose sighed and closed her eyes, willing her heart to slow down. The form next to her shifted and grunted in her ear pulling her closer to its cooler body. Then everything went white. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust and she saw a pale, beautiful woman fill her plane of vision. Rose felt a bone-deep cold settle into her limbs and refuse to leave. Off to the side June was wailing over the form of a furry-white lump. The pristine white of the floor was stained as something dark and wet spread slowly outwards. Suddenly the Doctor filled her vision and Rose saw his expression transform from one of fear and concern to something much harder, and much _much _more terrifying. Rose never wanted to see his expression like that ever again. He left her field of vision and everything went white again. He heard him shouting, and someone answering him calmly, but she couldn't make out the words.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Rose's costume as a serving maid is a cross between Sienna Guillory's costume in the movie Inkheart, and a traditional woman's dress from Brittany in the Northwest of France. (They make really good crepes there.)

If my explanation of what the heck is going on in this world doesn't make sense, please ask, I will do my best to clear things up. This chapter was written in various states of sanity, so sorry if it's quality is not the best.

I actually had to break this chapter up into two pieces because it got too long. The next chapter will be mainly Doctor-centric but will include Rose's departure from the Summer Princess' palace.

Please comment, I'm not picky, just a good/bad/ugly/etc. would be appreciated. And thank you to everyone who has commented on previous chapters. I enjoy hearing feedback for my work.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: In the Land of Ice and Snow

This was the first time the Doctor realized he was lucid since he asked the TARDIS to help Rose.

He had just felt something poking his chest from his breast pocket and reached inside to feel what it was, when he retrieved the rosebud the TARDIS had sent him. With a small smile, all of his memories returned in a flood.

He gasped when he realized that he'd forgotten so much and had to sit down to keep from falling as the memories returning made him dizzy.

The TARDIS hummed happily in his head for the first time in what seemed to be three months. It was late summer, it was night, and he hadn't done anything but pine for the Snow Queen for about three weeks.

The Doctor thought back to the day he asked the TARDIS for help and remembered that the startling noise had been the Snow Queen returning to her home for a few days. She'd introduced him to his "rival" a polar bear, and promptly snogged him (him, the Doctor, not the polar bear, though she may have done after he was out) completely senseless.

Any events after that were hazy, he remembered them but it was as if someone else had done them, and he was simply remembering watching a movie about what had happened.

He remembered that he'd fought with the polar bear, verbally, not physically, and then had to start playing a rather terrifying game of hide-and-seek in which the price of being found was being mauled by a very large white bear.

When the Queen returned again, this time with a group of men and women who were to be servants, and found them at each other's throats she laughed and kissed both of them. He had been completely unconscious until just a few moments ago.

The Doctor took in his surroundings. It was a large shining room made of ice. He was sitting on a block of ice that was settled on the floor close to a wooden table, the ice under him was melting and currently making his rear end rather numb. A bed sat on the far wall piled high with furs, and bookshelves lined the walls. He looked to another wall and saw a large window that overlooked a vast flat area that was bathed in moonlight. He looked up at the stars and gathered that his timey-wimey sense was indeed correct; it was late-summer time for this planet.

"Next order of business.' He thought and closed his eyes and contacted the TARDIS.

She greeted him warmly, extending feelings of love and warmth like a cup of tea, a blanket, a comfy chair, and a fireplace in his library. He smirked when the TARDIS added the feeling of someone close at hand, who happened to be radiating a presence he could only place as 'Rose.'

"How is my brave little companion anyway?" The Doctor asked, he smiled at the thought of the look Rose would give him if she heard him call her 'his little anything.'

The TARDIS flashed images of a palace and a summer day.

"She's reached the Summer Princess' palace, good girl."

Next came images of a woman holding a baby dressed in pink, which she then linked to an image of a rose.

"Rose has made a friend? And the Princess' daughter no less!" He remembered her being trapped by the Spring Witch and his smile faded. "Is she alright?"

The TARDIS chimed in his head and an image of a golden carriage with the two women inside it accompanied by the feeling of moving forward with a purpose permeated his mind.

"They're on their way." He said with a sense of relief.

The TARDIS chimed again and he opened his eyes breaking his communications with the ship.

"Now that that's over with." He said aloud and turned, only to freeze and clamp his hand over his mouth.

Across the room, in front of the door, lay a sleeping polar bear.

The Doctor tried to move around the polar bear to steal out the door but every time he tried to open it the polar bear woke up and backed him into a corner. He was on his fifth escape attempt, and was staring down the muzzle of a very angry bear and contemplating if a bear attack would leave him enough time to regenerate never mind whether or not he'd have ginger hair, when the door to his room opened, revealing a teenage girl carrying a tray of food.

"Oi!" she cried to the bear and hastily pushed it out of the room, which was an impressive feat, for compared to the bear the girl was little more than a kitten swatting at a bull.

"Sorry 'bout that." She said closing the door after the polar bear. "They're really not that bad once you get t' know 'em. You just had the unfortunate first impression of bein' the one t' wake one up."

"Ah, of course." Said the Doctor, eyeing the girl. "And wh-who are you exactly?"

She looked at him like she had just solved E=MC². "Oh…" she said, "You were under her spell."

"What?"

"Well, that would explain why you've never given me the time o' day. Well, no matter. Nice t' meet you, Doctor, I'm Virginia McCru of Pembrick, call me Ginny, I will be your chambermaid for your stay in this horrid place." She extended her hand for him to shake.

The Doctor grinned and shook her hand. "Pleased to meet you Ginny McCru of Pembrick. I'm the Doctor, but I suppose you already knew that."

"Indeed I did."

The Doctor grinned again as Ginny moved out of the room and dragged in a trolley loaded with a lavish supper and some tea.

"You're supper sir." Ginny said cheerfully, moving the tray of food from the trolley to the table.

The Doctor felt his stomach rumble a little as he realized he was famished.

"When was the last time I ate?" he asked himself.

"Two days ago." Ginny piped up. "You've been claiming t' be on a hunger strike t' get the Snow Queen back here."

He was a little startled by this information. "I've been that bad have I?"

Ginny nodded seriously. "'Fraid so."

"Well, then thank you Ginny. And I'm sorry I've been such a boar these last few days."

"Try weeks." She muttered under her breath, but said a cheery "nothing!" when the Doctor asked her to repeat herself.

Ginny tried not to stare as the Doctor began to tuck into his meal. She should really go and see if anyone needed anymore help. They'd lost Jacob to the bitter cold last week and the work load wasn't getting any lighter. As she thought about this she rubbed her mittened hands together in an attempt to warm them if only for a moment. The consort's rooms were always warmer than the staff quarters, having fireplaces in each individual room, but it was impolite to stare…

She was still on this string of thought when her stomach rumbled loudly; the Doctor looked at the girl in surprise. Ginny blushed and curled her toes in embarrassment.

He cocked an eyebrow, "Now that, was an awfully big noise to come from someone so small…"

"Sorry, sir. I'll just be goin' now."

"No, Ginny wait." He called, and Ginny turned back to him hope in her eyes. After all, when the Doctor wasn't under the Queen's spell, he was awfully nice… to her at any rate.

"When was the last time _you_ ate something?" He put stress on the word "you." Ginny ducked her head but answered truthfully.

"To be honest, I can't really remember. Might have been two days now? Food in the pantry is getting' a bit low, but the Snow Queen promised t' bring more when she comes back. She's due t' return in a few days. We're rationin' until she does."

"Then why have you brought me so much?"

"Cause we've been told t' keep you and the other consorts well fed."

"Ginny, sit down and eat."

"What?" The girl's eye rose to his and she saw that he wasn't joking.

"Sit down and eat some of this. And from now on don't you dare bring me any more than you eat yourself."

"But—"

"Ginny, I'm offering you a hot meal, are you really going to protest?"

Ginny's stomach rumbled again and she sat down grabbing a piece of bread from the tray and devouring it.

The Doctor sat down across from her and measured out some tea for each of them. Occasionally he would grab something off the plate and chew it carefully while looking out the window.

"Are there more of you Ginny, servants, that is?"

Ginny nodded over the chicken leg she was currently munching on.

"Yeah, a few more."

"And tell me, are all of you in good enough shape to cross the tundra?"

Ginny nearly choked on her chicken, he wasn't seriously thinking of escape.

"Most o' us are, there're one or two that wouldn't be able t' make it."

"We could put them on the sledge…" the Doctor muttered under his breath.

"You can't seriously be thinkin' of escapin' can you?" she gaped at him.

"Why not?" He looked generally clueless.

Ginny stammered as she often did when either flustered or angry, "B-b-b-because this is not only a palace, it's a fortress! The polar bear and wolf guards aren't just in here t' keep people from getting' in, they're t' keep people from gettin' out as well! An' if they don't kill you, well then we'd have t' face the tundra! That's 'bout fifty miles t' the nearest village! And at least another fifty t' the closest thing t' a city they have up here!"

"What about that tree line off on the horizon?" The Doctor asked.

"You must have some real good eyesight to see those…Those are at the base of the mountain range that separates the tundra from the rest of the world. It's about twenty miles from here. We're not too far into the tundra but once Winter sets in, those mountains are impassible to anyone without a reindeer."

"Or a flying sledge…" the Doctor reiterated.

"You'd have t' be barking mad t' even think t' attempt such a thing!" Ginny was near shouting now. "Especially with it being close t' summer's end! Winter sets in early up here Doctor, an' if you get caught out there in one of those storms, you'll be so frozen the arctic buzzards won't be able t' pick your bones for another hundred years! Doctor, if it were just you thinkin' t' escape then maybe it would work. One person, maybe two could last long enough on what's left of our provisions t' get them t' the little village, if they know where they're goin', and if they don't get caught. But with you, me, an' everyone else in this place..." Ginny shook her head, "It wouldn't be possible."

The Doctor didn't look phased. "Ginny, I'll tell you something. I try to believe in six impossible things before breakfast, as recommended to me by a lovely chap by the name of Charles Dodgson." He stood. "Why don't you and I go and see how impossible this impossible venture of mine would be?"

He held out his hand and wiggled his eyebrows. Ginny felt a smile go down her spine with the way he looked at her. At the very least, at least this one was entertaining.

"Alright, come on, I'll introduce you t' everyone." She said pulling him along behind her to the servant's quarters.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As it turned out, impossible didn't look so impossible, when the Doctor was looking at it.

After winning the hearts of all of the servants he turned to charming his supposed "rival," the giant polar bear whom the Snow Queen had brought from a distant land. Ginny took the Doctor to speak with the polar bear. On the way she informed him that the polar bear's name was Prince Mehlu, of the Apple Country. He apparently was the crowned prince and heir to the throne, however he had been turned into a polar bear by the Snow Queen after he rejected her. He was also in love with the Summer Princess' daughter, June.

"Prince Mehlu?" Ginny called, pushing the door open a crack. "Prince Mehlu? There's someone here who wishes to speak to you…"

The Doctor entered a room that looked much like his own. Ornately furnished, but everything covered in a layer of ice.

There was a furry lump curled up by the fireplace, it breathed heavily and a growl was emitting from its throat.

"I don't want to talk to anybody." The lump insisted in a deep voice.

"Look, Prince Mehlu, I know we've not been on the best of terms." The Doctor began.

The bear stood suddenly and wheeled on the Doctor, growling angrily, he backed the Doctor out the door and down the hall.

"Alright, alright you can eat me but please here me out first!"

The Polar bear sniffed at him. "You're no longer under her spell… took you long enough."

The Doctor bristled. "I've been under the Snow Queen's spell for a good deal longer than you! As well as having a shard of the mirror of deception stuck in my eye and poking me in the left ventricle for almost six months! So don't you tell me I've been taking a long time to clear my head!"

Prince Mehlu snorted. "The mirror of deception? You'll be dead before Winter comes."

"That maybe so, if I was human."

"You're not human?" The bear asked incredulously.

"Not any more human than you are a polar bear."

Mehlu snorted again and ambled off.

"Prince Mehlu," The Doctor said. "We're going to escape tonight… meet us at the gate house at midnight if you ever want to see June again."

Mehlu looked back over his shoulder, but nodded before shuffling back into his room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The plan was set and ready to go, at midnight tonight everyone would meet in the gate house. Ginny and all the other serving girls will have drugged the guard's food, and they'd have an hour to load up the Snow Queen's sledge with food and other provisions. At one they would make a run for it. The guards would be out for another hour so they might have a three or four mile head start.

By 12:30 everything was going according to plan.

By 1:15 everything had gone distinctly pear-shaped, and it was a well-known fact, or it would be once he got out of this mess, that the Doctor Did. Not. Like. Pears....

A few miles from the palace an inhuman scream came from behind them. The small band of refugees looked behind them fearfully.

"What was that?" Mehlu asked looking up at the Doctor.

The Doctor didn't have the chance to reply when a gust of wind knocked everyone off their feet. The Doctor peered back at the palace and saw something white begin to make its way across the ground.

Ice.

Premature frost was beginning to make its way across the tundra and was flash-freezing everything in sight. The Doctor's mind worked at a mile a minute.

He hauled Ginny up by her sleeve and pushed his way through the screaming and scrambling people.

"Doctor what are you--?" she screeched, trying to tug her hand out of his.

"Ginny, please, just trust me." He said, lifting the girl onto the sledge where the sick servants were crying for help.

The Doctor's head spun around at a scream, just in time to see a young woman in the group have frost crawl up her body and stop her dead. 'the buzzards won't be able to pick your bones for a hundred years.' He heard Ginny say in his head.

"Listen, I want you to take the provisions and run. How long will it take you to get to the nearest village?"

"What? You can't be serious?!"

"How long, Ginny we're running out of time!"

"Five to ten days… depends on how fast you go."

"Alright, five to ten days. Ginny," he gripped her by the shoulders. "I need you to do something brave for me now… I need you to run, run as far and as fast as you can. At least get to the nearest village, and I want you to give this, to Rose Tyler."

The Doctor pressed a folded piece of black leather into her hand.

"What is it?" She asked.

"It's a message. Deliver it to Rose Tyler, you got that?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Virginia McCru, I'm sorry. I am so sorry, but I need you to do this. I can't save all of us, but I can save you, you're the only one who knows the way to the village. So I need you to run. Get this message to Rose, she's coming to find me, and she'll need this. If you do this, then we just might be able to save your world."

"Okay." Ginny nodded and the Doctor squeezed her shoulders with a grin.

"Good girl." He said and handed her the satchel of food. He then helped her off the sledge, he ran the first few steps with her, pulling her behind him, and then he set her off like he was setting a skipping-stone into flight. "RUN!" he shouted.

Ginny ran until the sounds of screams died away. She only stopped then because she tripped over a rock and fell face-first into the mud. The trees were still a long way in the distance but she decided to stop only when she reached them. Ginny looked back only once, and prayed that the Doctor was alright.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor was sitting on a great block of ice staring out the open window. The wind was blowing harshly across the tundra plains that extended from the base of the ice palace in all directions. These winds even reached his window, but the Doctor could not feel them. He had long ago gone numb to the pain and he was steadily turning more and more blue as the weeks wore on. The only reason why he wasn't dead yet was because he had found a stash of dry wood and had managed to spark a fire in one of the chimneys. This had also done a good job of melting a hole in the floor but at least he was warm throughout the night. During the day he had decided to save his supply of wood and keep as warm as possible by huddling in the sun.

It was getting harder and harder to stay lucid now that seven months had gone by since he was put under the Queen's spell, and seven months, six hours since he was infected by the mirror of deception. The TARDIS was doing her best to keep him sane by flashing pictures of his past adventures and companions through his mind. She kept on insisting that Rose was on her way, she was coming, she was moving as fast as she could.

Rose.

The Doctor spent quite a few of his lucid hours wondering where she was now, how she was faring, how many times she was going to kill him for abandoning her.

The Doctor had just begun musing about the fact that he was actually being successfully held prisoner for once but jumped when he heard sleigh bells from below. He turned his attention to the ground and his working heart beat erratically for a moment when he recognized the driver as the Snow Queen.

Since the disaster of an escape attempt that night on the ice, he'd not seen her.

He bolted away from the window when he heard her coming up to the rooms he was currently in.

"Hello Doctor." She greeted as warmly as possible for such a frigid woman. "I hear that you tried to run away the other night." She tsked at him. "That wasn't very wise, it got all of the help killed didn't it? I'm glad to see that you are still alive though."

The Doctor shivered, and not because of the cold. "How many men have you murdered this way? How many will never see their wives or husbands, mothers or fathers, brothers or sisters again because of you? Hmm? How many!?" The Doctor's voice rose in authority and volume until he was standing as the Oncoming Storm for the first time since he'd been enchanted.

"Do not shout at me!" The queen was colder and more terrible than he'd imagined, and for a brief moment the perception filter she wore flickered and he was horrified with what he saw. The Oncoming Storm was immediately silenced.

"Better." She said calming again. "To answer your question, I don't know. I've honestly lost count."

The Doctor glared but said nothing.

She smiled at him semi-sweetly holding out a hand to beckon him forward. "Come now my love, do not hate me so? After all, it is your fault that they died; those servants would not have run without your false hope."

The Doctor bristled. "How was I supposed to know that your palace is booby trapped two miles away?"

"I am simply protecting myself, Doctor… Come let's not fight any longer? I've had a long journey, and I would love your company."

The Doctor felt her drawing him under, he resisted. "Why are you doing this? What could all of these people have done to deserve this?"

"Even the gods get lonely; you of all people should know that."

"You're not a god." He growled.

"Oh no? Then how can I do this?" she clenched her hand in a fist and the Doctor felt the ice at his feet begin to lock him in place. The cold biting through the thin canvas and he almost felt his toes turning purple. The ice began to crawl its way up his legs and the Doctor screamed in pain as it leeched the warmth from his body.

The Snow Queen laughed and the ice dissipated, the Doctor's legs gave out and he groaned as he hit the floor.

"That's not being a god," the Doctor spat. The Snow Queen's laughter melted.

"What is it then?"

"It's having psychic control over a state of matter, telekinesis, simple, for the correct life-form…"

"And am I the correct life-form?" the Snow Queen had sauntered over to him and was half an inch from his face.

"I'm not even sure you are a life-form, you certainly don't have a heart."

The Snow Queen stood laughing again and walked to the recliner made of ice that sat in the corner.

"I'm here until spring, and that is the bottom line, so you'd best get used to it… I'll be expecting your company."

"Company for what?" the Doctor sputtered.

"Oh, you know, dining, walking, talking, sleeping… _dancing_." She smiled mischievously.

The Doctor snorted.

"What, are you too good for me all-mighty Time Lord?" she scoffed. "And you'll do all these things with a mere human? You really are an egotistical hypocrite!"

"I've never used Rose in that way."

"But you _want_ to." She said her grin splitting her face; she took a sip of wine from the goblet still sitting on the table from his dinner the night before, the dinner he'd not touched.

"I-" The Doctor couldn't think of any way to finish the sentence that he would feel comfortable with.

"That's not important, my darling. Next kiss I give you you'll forget her anyway… Rest well Doctor, you have until I wake in December to do as you please. Then I'll let you forget, forget all of the pain and the sorrow, and the heartache."

"You're not a strong enough psychic to ever make me forget what I've done."

"Shall we put that to the test?"

There was a tense moment between the two. She ended it.

"Let us not quarrel love. I've only just returned. Now then, I must go and see how my polar bear is doing; he was wounded in the capture you know."

The Doctor's heart thudded in his chest, if Mehlu died, his kingdom would never even know.

"I know a great deal about you Doctor, I know that you will never let an innocent man die when you could save him, and I know where your companion is and exactly how fragile an existence she leads, and I know that you will do anything to save her, even kill yourself by taking the time vortex out of her head."

"How do you know about that?"

"I looked into your mind while you slept. You will be given a very limited number of chances Doctor…" The Queen said, then she called for her guards and when they entered the room she barked out orders to lock him in the cages with the others.

She smiled at him again, and whispered "Good night." As he was lead out of the door.

The Doctor let out a shuddering sigh. He was neck deep in trouble.

'Tell Rose to hurry, please, I'm running out of time.' The Doctor begged the TARDIS and of course she heeded her Time Lord and contacted Rose for a second time.

Rose awoke the next morning to the tolling of the TARDIS' cloister bell rolling around her head. She moaned and wondered what the TARDIS could be so agitated about this early in the morning.

Suddenly, Rose began to panic. Were the TARDIS' shields in place? Had she locked the door on her way out? Was this the semi-sentient ship trying to communicate the Doctor's peril with her? Was he wounded? Sick? Failing? Forgetting himself completely? Had she already taken too long to reach him?

The TARDIS soothed her with comforting images of Earth, the smell of apple grass, and the feeling of warm blankets being wrapped around her consciousness.

"Oh," crooned Rose, "Why can't you do this when I'm having a hard time sleeping?"

The TARDIS gave her equivalent of a huff of exasperation. Then flashed impressions of the Doctor, a castle, ice, a queen, snow, and overall a general feeling of urgency directed toward her.

Rose did her best to translate the TARDIS' efforts to communicate. She was beginning to feel a bit like the adults in _Lassie_, having a conversation with a distinctly non-human being whom you have no idea whether or not they understand you. She suppressed the urge to say "What's that girl, Timmy's fallen into the well?!"

"'Kay, let me get this straight. The Doctor's with the Snow Queen, but he's running out of time, so you're telling me to get out of bed and walk faster?"

The TARDIS sent Rose impressions all resembling an affirmative.

"Well, looks like my TARDIS-translation is getting better." Rose said optimistically as she rolled out of bed. The TARDIS bid her farewell and broke their mental connection.

No sooner had Rose pulled on a fresh pair of knickers and jeans from her satchel, then a small group of maids burst through the doors into the room closely followed by the Summer Princess' daughter, June.

"You have got to be joking." June said upon seeing Rose.

"What?" Rose inquired her eyes going wide.

"You can't travel like that! We're going to the Northern Tundra. It's cold enough to freeze a fire-demon up there."

"Yeah well, I left all my winter stuff at the Spring Witch's cottage. So this'll have to do for a while." Rose replied.

June sighed and shook her head at Rose affectionately. "You must be one of those people I've heard about who can lose their heads if they don't tie them on properly…"

Rose only shrugged. If there was one thing Rose had learned on her journey thus far, it was that on this planet you were better off to simply nod and smile when people made assumptions about you. Otherwise you were likely to be chased out of town by a mob of angry villagers wielding pitch-forks.

"Come on," said June, motioning into the hallway, "Let's get you something to wear."

About half the morning later Rose found herself stuffed into a royal looking dress and wrapped in a thick, wool and fur, cloak that was much too warm for a mid-summer's day, with the cloister bell once again sounding in her head. The combination was driving her spare.

"I'm supposed to be able to walk in this?" Rose asked incredulously.

"Of course not!" June scoffed, waving her hand dismissively.

"Then how are we getting to the Northern Tundra?" Rose pointed out, now completely confused. "S'not like you've got planes or trains or cars."

"That's correct, they are banned on this planet after all. But we'll not be walking north. My mother has arranged for a carriage to take us there."

"What, seriously?"

"Yes, I am being serious." June said. And not half a minute later a gilded carriage wheeled around to the front of the palace where both women and several attendants were gathered.

The Summer Princess gracefully walked to the side of the carriage and opened the door for the two girls herself.

"Good luck, my daughter." She said, as June climbed gracelessly into the carriage.

"Good luck, Rose." The Summer Princess gripped Rose's hand and Rose couldn't help but look the woman in the eye. Everything around her shifted.

Suddenly she was standing at the top of a mountain looking down over a vast tundra clearly in the grips of an arctic summer. A pale green was in splotches across the landscape with little patches of fuchsia and periwinkle poking through where there were flowering plants. The ground in between the green was a muddy brown.

"This is the Northern Tundra" The Summer Princess spoke, jarring Rose's thoughts from the scenery. "You must promise me Rose, promise to turn back if you aren't to the Snow Queen's fortress by the Winter Solstice. If you do not, you will share the same fate as your Doctor, to be a frozen corpse when this land once again turns to ice. Will you promise me, since my daughter's fate now rests entwined with you?"

Rose nodded to the woman, still a little too uneasy to speak.

"Good." The Summer Princess turned back to the scenery and it changed once again. This time a great wall of cut ice loomed above them.

"This is the Snow Queen's palace. It is guarded on every outer level so your only chance of getting in undetected is to crawl in through this chimney."

They now hovered over a chimney that connected to a guard house on the outer portion of the wall.

"This is where her wolves sleep at night. Before going down you must drop a sleeping potion onto the fire so that all of the wolves will fall asleep before you and my daughter descend. But do not forget to douse the fire with water before crawling down."

"Where can I find a sleeping potion?" Rose asked.

"My last sister, the Autumn Thief will provide it for you, if you can give her something of equal value in return." An image of a tall woman wearing colorful clothing and a bandana over her curly dark hair appeared before the two women. The woman carried a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other.

"Bring my daughter home safe Rose, even if it means bringing her home without your beloved Doctor."

Suddenly Rose was back standing with her hand clasped in the Summer Princess' hand. Rose shook her head before resuming her climb into the carriage. The inside was just as ornate and beautiful as the outside, royal red velvet cushions with lush wool blankets, and kerosene reading lamps. This was not how Rose had expected to be making the final legs of her journey north.

"Summer is waning fast, girls." The Summer Princess spoke drawing all eyes to her. "It will soon pass into the autumn and then I will no longer be able to protect you. Good luck on your travels, may you return home soon, and return victorious."

June nodded and smiled at her mother, calling her goodbyes out the window as the carriage pulled away. Six chestnut horses pulled the gilded vehicle out of the palace gates and into the woods.

Rose sighed. "Halfway there." She whispered into the panes of glass watching as the fog from her breath slowly dissipated.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: What is it with me and long chapters lately? Anyway, hope you enjoyed this. The next chapter is Rose-and-June-centric, where they meet the Autumn Robber, which was always my favorite bit of the story.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Wheels in Motion

The carriage lurched to a halt waking Rose as she crashed into the seat opposite her, and smashing June's head against the wall of the carriage with a loud bang.

June groaned and clutched her head and Rose checked her over for a concussion. After deeming her un-concussed, Rose opened the door to the carriage and called up to the driver.

"Why've we stopped? We at the Snow Queen's palace?"

"Nay, my lady." The driver said, "We're far from there yet. The horses have just stopped; I can't get them to move."

Rose stepped out of the carriage and into the pile of orange leaves that lay on the forest floor. Summer had passed long ago and by June's sense of season, she believed that it was late-October Earth time.

"Rose?" June asked, stepping out of the carriage. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, the horses won't budge, they must think that there's something wrong…"

The horses were shying and stamping their feet. Their eyes were wild and the pulled at their harnesses. Suddenly, they bolted leaving June and Rose in their wake.

The driver was shouting commands and curses at the horses as they plowed down the forest path. But they didn't get far.

From out of nowhere all sorts of dark shapes came from out of the ground and fell from the tree tops. They severed the horses from the carriage and freed them from the harnesses to make off with the beasts. The driver was pulled from his perch and before Rose or June could cover their eyes the man's throat was slit.

June screamed, and the robbers noticed the two women standing down the path.

"Run!" Rose shouted and pulled on June's arm. Both women started to run into the trees in an attempt to lose the robbers.

Shouts of "Get them!" and "Don't let them get away!" Followed them off of the road.

Rose soon found herself separated from June and she stopped short peering through the dense trees frantically. There was no one to be seen.

A scream pierced the silence of the forest and Rose bolted towards the sound, her heavy dress weighed her down and made it harder to run but she managed, lifting the skirts above her knees.

Rose came upon a clearing where June was being hauled onto a man's shoulder and he began to walk away. Several other robbers were laughing a jeering with crooked smiles on their faces. All of them were dressed in shades of brown or yellow-gold or orange. Consequently they blended in seamlessly with the scenery if you didn't know where to look.

Rose knew she had to free June, she was the only person who could help her reach the Snow Queen's palace in time, and they were so close to the Snow Queen's domain, having entered the Autumn Robber's woods almost two months ago.

Rose looked about her for a rock or something she could throw. She cleared the fallen leaves away from the ground by her feet and searched frantically for a stone. Upon finding a decent sized one she straightened and lobbed it at the nearest robber's head.

The man yelped in pain and all of the robbers turned towards Rose. But she was no longer in the same place, having moved as soon as the rock had left her hand. Now she was staring at the robbers from a different angle, and throwing another stone at a different robber's head. This man yelped too and Rose dashed away for a second time. Finally when she went to make her third throw one of the robbers noticed her and shouted "There she is!"

Rose ran for it.

She had just reached a cliff of sorts, where the hill they were on dropped off suddenly because of some sort of geologic event. Rose spun around and saw seven robbers closing in on her and grinning wickedly.

However, Rose was surprised when they surrounded her, and didn't move in for the kill. They simply grinned at her like she was a carnival freak-show.

A few of the men were looking towards the sky so Rose did the same, just in time to see a dark shape fall from the trees with a battle cry. The shape landed on top of her and knocked her out cold.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Rose opened her eyes she was in the TARDIS. The ship hummed peacefully in the background making a comforting white noise. She was in her room, she realized as she turned her head and saw her trinkets and belongings scattered around the dimly lit space.

Could it really have been that the last ten months were only a dream?

No such luck.

Because suddenly Rose's mother was standing by the doorway smiling, and there was no way that Jackie was ever going to set foot inside the TARDIS while the Doctor was still breathing.

"You comin' home soon, sweetheart?" Jackie asked walking up to her daughter's bed.

Rose turned over and stared sadly at her. "I can't. I need to find the Doctor, Mum. Then I'll come home for a visit."

"Okay," Jackie said sadly, stroking her daughter's hair. "You do what you have to. But you have to promise me that there'll be no pit stops on the way home! You'll come straight home and see me right after this yeah? I miss you."

"Course mum, I miss you too." Rose hugged her mother and was surprised that when she pulled back it was a man that she was embracing.

"Mickey!" Rose cried, "God, I thought I'd never see you again…"

"Yeah, well, technically you haven't," he grinned. "Right now I'm just a figment of your imagination. Real me is sittin' in a parallel universe somewhere."

"Man of my dreams." She teased.

Mickey snorted. "Man _in_ your dreams maybe… you take care of himself yeah?"

Rose nodded.

"You take care of yourself too." Mickey grinned and Rose was suddenly sitting in a bed in a room of the TARDIS she didn't know.

"Oi!" A voice cried out behind her and Rose and Mickey turned to see a tall, blue-eyed, Mancunian Doctor, in the doorway.

"You're not allowed in here!" he pointed at Mickey and then to a false window. "Out!"

Mickey disappeared with a shrug and a grin at Rose.

"S'you!" Rose gasped taking in her first Doctor.

"Yeah, course it's me. Whose room did you think this was?"

"Then how am I dreamin' of it? 've never been in your room."

"Really? You haven't? Well, I could tell you that it's the TARDIS filling in the blanks inside your head, but I feel like you'd get mad at me for that, like you did with the translating."

Rose sighed. "I don't mind the TARDIS doin' it, I trust her not to change anything around too much up here." She tapped her forehead.

The Doctor gave her one of his patented manic grins. "So what sort of trouble has my tenth regeneration gotten himself into this time?"

"You say that as if _you_ never got us into any." Rose grinned.

"Well, I was always able to think of a way to get us back out again. Unlike that one. You better keep a better eye on me! A bit like an over eager puppy sometimes… Must have been your mum's tea…"

The Doctor's grin faded and he said very seriously. "Save me, Rose. I don't want to be stuck in that place forever."

His face began to change as he spoke, his eyes slowly darkening to brown, hair growing out in every direction, ears and nose becoming slightly more proportional, body growing a bit more slender, and a pin-stripe suit replacing an old green jumper and leather jacket. The last thing that changed was his voice, losing the mancunian accent to be replaced with perfect London-estuary.

"I'm trying, Doctor. I'm on my way. I've just got caught up a little bit again but I'll be back on the road again soon."

The rude and not-ginger Doctor nodded and tugged on his ear.

"I suppose it's about time for you to wake up now." He said meeting her eyes.

"I miss you." She spoke hastily, determined to draw out her time with him. "Are you alright."

"Me too, and, I can't tell you." His face was unreadable. "But Rose, it really is time for you to wake up."

"Do I have to?" she asked sheepish.

He smiled at her. "Rose Tyler, you ready?"

"No." She laughed nervously, she half meant it too.

He held out his hand and pulled her up.

"Don't worry. You'll be brilliant. You always are." She heard him say as the TARDIS interior faded around her. The last thing that faded was the smile on the Doctor's face that he always had on reserve especially for her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rose groaned when she opened her eyes. Her head felt like she'd been on an all-night bender.

She yelped as she felt something poke her side and a voice that was, for all intents and purposes, rather annoying and grating on the nerves. "Hey Momma!" the voice called, "This 'uns up!"

"Good!" A harsh voice replied. "Bring 'er here."

Rose was dragged up by her hair and gasped when a knife was pressed none-too-gently to her throat.

"Move an inch, an' I'll gut ya like the piglet I 'et for breakfast!" the first voice snarled in her ear.

Rose had to crane her neck to get a view of her captor, it was a short girl, appearing to be about the age of seventeen, she had a cruel smile and a missing tooth, her black hair was cropped short on her head and she had freckles across her nose. The girl would have been pretty if it wasn't for the smears of grime and the eye-patch. Her clothes were worn at tattered as well, all of them looking either a size too big or too small for her.

"You see something worth starin' at princess?" The girl snarled tugging on Rose's hair again. "Move it!"

Rose was shoved out of an orange tent and into a camp ground. Jewel-tone tents lined the outskirts and a wooden tower led up to a series of tree-houses, that had multi-colored banners cascading from the branches; all of them connected by wooden walk-ways. Gypsy-like carts dotted the campsite as well as fire pits and numerous horses and reindeer.

To Rose, these people all sounded as if they had stepped straight out of that pirate movie with Johnny Depp in amounts of eyeliner that even Rose found excessive. A few of the strangers dressed like they'd stepped out of a pirate movie too. All fabrics were various shades of crimson, brown, amber orange, or gold. All of the people shared common genetic traits as well, black curly hair, pale skin, and near-black irises.

Rose was shoved to the ground in front of a woman who Rose recognized from the image the Summer Princess had shown her.

"Can I keep 'er Momma?" the girl with the knife asked.

The Autumn Robber looked up sharply at the girl. "'eck no! She was gonna be my supper!"

"Aw! But Momma, this 'uns pretty. An' the last 'un tried t' run away and got 'erself kilt."

"Oh, alright. You can have 'er." The girl squealed with delight. "After, we're done 'ere!" Her mother added.

Rose wasn't sure which one she felt more; insulted, or terrified.

"You my sister's daughter?" The woman finally addressed her.

"No." Rose answered truthfully.

"Lock 'er up, an' bring me the other 'un. She'll be Cali's playmate and a serving girl the rest of the time."

Two burly men approached her and Rose fought frantically against their grip. But no matter how loud she screamed, no matter how hard she kicked or bit, all of her efforts were futile. They dragged her to a small stone store house and tossed her roughly to the floor. Rose rushed at the door but it slammed in her face. Rose huffed in frustration as she heard a thick wood plank bar the door and a lock snick shut.

Rose turned her back to the door to inspect her surroundings and found three reindeer staring at her with surprised looks in their warm eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Doctor felt as if a blade had been placed between his hearts and was slowly shredding him apart from the inside. His left heart had stopped working altogether and the shard of the mirror was slowly making its way to his second heart to do the same.

One of the four servants who had survived their escape attempt was acting as a nurse for him as his condition worsened. Her name was Mary and she looked like Rose, if he squinted and she was in profile, and that was a small comfort. She looked a bit like Romana's second regeneration face-on and that was amusing.

When the Snow Queen heard of his illness, she saw her chance to snare him once and for all, and ordered everyone to be taken out of his cell and moved to the servant's quarters.

"Hello, Doctor." The Snow Queen smiled as she entered his cell.

His head turned and he rolled his eyes with a groan. "Oh, here we go- What do you want?"

"You do realize that I know what's ailing you?"

"Do you indeed? Well then that's a relief. You hear that, the Snow Queen knows what's killing me!" He shouted to no one in particular. To be honest, he just liked the sound of the echoes this room made.

"You were poisoned by the mirror of deception. One shard in the eye, and one in the heart."

The Doctor stared blankly at her. "And you're point?"

"I can help you." Her expression was one that blatantly told the Doctor that this was a trap. "I know how to remove the shards."

"And how would you manage that?"

"Just a kiss Doctor. Just one kiss from me and the shards would melt away."

"Well," The Doctor drew out the word as if he was sucking on a piece of toffee. "That settles it then, pucker up!"

The Doctor made fake kissing sounds and then glared at her, suddenly dead serious.

"But what you so willfully forget to tell me is that the moment I consent to that kiss, I will be giving my consent for you to steal my free will. You see I figured out how you do that trick. Every time you kiss your victim it's like nudging your foot in the door to that person's mind. A few kisses and then… the person's mind no longer views you as an intruder and lets you waltz right on through. The kiss also sends signals through the blood stream and from the brain that puts that person in a constant state of half-awareness. Physically you're still awake, but you've shut down the mental processes that regulate inhibition and maybe even their survival instincts. It's an easy thing to reverse, all it takes is a simple shake to those mental processes like some sort of mnemonic device and they'll be as right as rain. It's better than blood control, I'll give you that, but certainly not flawless. This is why you always bring your victims here, far away from anything that might remind them of who they really are."

The Snow Queen smiled. "Mnemonic devices such as this?" She held up the rose bud that had formerly been in the Doctor's breast pocket.

The Doctor patted his pockets frantically and the Snow Queen's smile widened. "Come not Doctor, you didn't think I'd put two and two together? You were always looking at this, and your companion's name is Rose… it's insulting that you thought that I wouldn't figure it out. I will offer you this once Doctor, and then you'll have to come to me and beg if you want salvation. Will you submit to me now, or do you need to suffer?"

The Doctor stayed silent.

"Very well." The Snow Queen began plucking the petals off of the rose bud. "We'll play this the hard way."

When the last petal fell to the icy floor the Snow Queen placed her foot over the pile and ground her heel into the ice and petals. The Doctor glared at her.

"Call for me, when you change your mind." And she was gone.

As the days wore on the Doctor's condition worsened to the point where his symptoms were a combination of a heart-attack and a bad case of influenza. He declined from being able to stand but being dizzy, to being able to sit up without vomiting, to not even being able to lift his arms to pull up the blanket which had just slipped off of him because of his violent trembling.

In his fever dreams he was connected to the TARDIS and she wailed at their shared pain. At some point she would update him on Rose's progress only to learn that she was once again stuck… and this time she was having a hard time getting out but there was no way to help her.

Almost two weeks had passed and the Doctor realized he had no choice. If he didn't let the Snow Queen remove the shards of mirror he would die. As long as Rose got here by the Winter Solstice he would remember her. It was a gamble, but it would have to be one he was willing to make. The question was; did he trust in Rose enough to put his life completely in her hands? The answer was, not to his surprise, yes, he did trust her. She'd saved his life before and she could do it again.

He called for the Snow Queen that night.

"Alright." He said when she entered the room. "I give my consent."

"Excellent." She said with a smile. "You've made the right choice, my love."

She knelt next to him and pressed a kiss to his lips, his body immediately went completely numb, and slowly his mind went to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

During the day Rose washed and cleaned, and at meal times she served anyone and everyone meat and drink. During the night, after Rose had been given the scraps from the night's meal, she was dragged up to the Autumn Robber's daughter's tree house and was forced to sleep next to her. The girl held a dagger to Rose's throat as she slept.

Rose hadn't seen June since she'd entered the camp, but she'd heard whispers among the men that the Autumn Robber had sent a ransom note to her sister, June's mother, and was waiting for a reply.

It was around this time that Rose was given her first "day-off" for a "play-date" with Calico, the Autumn Robber's daughter.

"Come on, Pretty." Calico said dragging Rose along by her bound hands. "We're off t' have some fun!"

When they stopped Calico tied Rose up to a tree and told her to be very quiet, because Calico was going to rob the royal coach that would be passing through the forest with the Summer Princess' ransom for her daughter.

"Isn't that the money your mum asked for?" Rose asked, genuinely perplexed but also trying to distract Calico from the fact that she was making head-way on loosening the knots around her wrists.

"Yeah."

"So why're you trying to steal it? Don't you get a share?"

"Yeah, but this way, I'll get a bigger share, now hush!"

Rose was quiet, but only for a minute.

"So why are you called Calico when your brothers are called November and October?"

"M' real name's September, but I prefer Calico."

"An' you're mum's okay with that?"

"No, but I've beat 'er enough times tha' she accepts it." Calico said with a grin.

"What do you mean, 'beat her?'"

"You know, the usual way." Calico beat her left fist into her right palm a few times to make her point.

"You actually beat her up!" Rose was horrified; she could never imagine beating her mum.

"Sure! S' how we know she still cares about us. Now really be quiet! The carriage is comin'!"

Rose did as she was told, but her heart was pounding, she had gotten the knots undone and now was her chance to escape and be back on her way.

Rose waited until Calico was completely distracted by making her trap, and then she bolted. Rose ran until she couldn't run any more, and when she finally stopped exhausted and with her side aching, she grinned through the pain when she didn't hear anyone following her.

But then a leaf flitted past her head and Rose looked up, just in time to see a dark shape fall from the trees with a battle cry. Rose blacked out on impact.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Why would you do tha'!" Calico half-whined, half screeched. "We were havin' so much fun! An' then you ran, an' you were hidin' this from us!"

Calico held up the locket that would call the TARDIS to her when opened. Rose looked around and found herself back in the Robber's camp.

"Please give that back." Rose's head was killing her; she must have hit it when she fell.

"No! You ran so you don't get t' keep it!" Calico said inspecting the necklace.

"Calico please!" There was a crowd forming now and Rose realized that she was tied up again.

"No! You cost me tha' carriage, 'cause I had t' go chasin' after you! Besides, s' got diamonds innit. Wonder what's…" Calico went to open the locket and Rose panicked.

"No! Calico please, don't open it!"

Calico looked stunned; she turned to the crowd of robbers who had gathered around the pair. She held up the locket and said:

"Should I open it?"

"Yea." The crowd replied.

"I said, should I open it?" Calico cried indicating for the crowd to be louder.

"Yea!" the crowd shouted back.

Calico turned to Rose. "They think I should, an' you ran, so you know wha'? I'm gonna open it!"

With that Calico popped open the catch and the air was filled with the sound of the TARDIS materializing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: I don't think I've had a proper cliff-hanger in this story so I think I'll put one in now... This chapter just got a shine too long so I decided to cut it in two. No worries, the second part is already half-done so it should done by this weekend and up next week. Thanks to everyone who has been sticking around to read this story. I appreciate all of the reviews and comments. Thanks for reading!


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: A Troubled Mind

"_I said, should I open it?" Calico cried indicating for the crowd to be louder._

"_Yea!" the crowd shouted back._

_Calico turned to Rose. "They think I should, an' you ran, so you know wha'? I'm gonna open it!"_

_With that Calico popped open the catch and the air was filled with the sound of the TARDIS materializing. _

Rose could scream in frustration. Everything was suddenly that much more complicated. If the Doctor was hurt, she couldn't bring the TARDIS to him, and these woods were still a good distance from the Snow Queen's palace. Any attempt to move him might result in injury, or even death. Rose ducked her head and felt hot tears of frustration and stress leak down her cheeks. She didn't even hear the surprised gasps and mummers of the people around her at the ship's appearance from thin air.

"What the hell is this!" Rose did hear the Autumn Robber shout.

"Momma!" Calico cried, "Rosie had this locket see, an' when I opened it, this box appeared out o' nowhere!"

"Speakin' o' Rosie, where is the girl?"

"Over there." Calico pointed and the Autumn Robber stalked over to her. "She tried t' run so I tied 'er up!"

There was a slap and the sound of Calico grumbling.

"What was that for?" she whined.

"She's spring's daughter you brainless dell!"

"But she said…"

"I know what she said, now she were either lyin', which would be damn stupid, or didn't know t' begin with… which is also damned stupid."

"Can you not talk about me as if I wasn't here?" Rose said glaring at the Autumn Robber.

"You stupid girl!" The woman growled at Rose.

"Oi!" Rose exclaimed indignantly in a very good impression of the Doctor.

"You told me you weren't my sister's daughter!"

"That's cause I'm not." Rose was now very confused.

"The Spring Witch begs to differ." The Autumn Robber then pulled a snow drop out of her pocket.

"When we searched you," the woman explained. "I found this. I thought it looked like a token from my elder sister the Spring Witch, when I asked you if you were her daughter, you said no. Six months ago the Spring Witch sent out letters to her other sisters warning them not to harm her 'daughter,' the girl who was on a quest to find the Snow Queen's palace and her beloved 'Doctor,' and she said we'd know the girl because she would be carrying a snow drop from her garden. If you'd 've just said so in the first place I'd 've let you go on your merry way! But instead, you have to deny the fact that you're my sister's daughter, and look where you've landed, eh? Three weeks behind schedule! Cut her loose you lubs!"

"Well, I'm sorry to be such an inconvenience but I honestly didn't know." Rose rubbed her chafed wrists as she stood.

The Autumn Robber snorted in reply.

"What about June?" Rose asked after taking a moment to cool her temper.

"Her mother just sent me a letter saying that she was with you, looking for her polar bear friend, and a few other choice words to describe my behavior. How was I supposed to know you were on an important mission if you two didn't tell me! You really are more trouble than you're worth!"

"So you'll let us go then?"

"More than that. I'm givin' you one of our reindeer to show you the way. Harold? Bring out Rutgur and Bubbles they'll be happy t' be sent home!"

"Er… thank you."

"Daft girl, don't thank me yet, I'm sending you into the wastelands. Now tell me what's goin' on with that locket o' yours and this box." She patted the side of the TARDIS.

Rose explained about how the TARDIS was the Doctor's ship and how the locket was only meant to be opened when she reached the Snow Queen's palace so that they could heal the Doctor easily and get away quickly.

The Autumn Robber nodded solemnly at the end of her story. "I'm sorry September ruined your plans then. She's a bit cranky when she's been betrayed. I can say this though; we'll keep this TARDIS safe for you and your Doctor. She'll be here and in one piece when you return."

"Thanks, I guess." Rose honestly didn't know how to react to the Robber treating her so kindly.

"This ain't entirely unselfish mind you." She explained. "Every year I lose more and more of my power and the Snow Queen's power increases. In another year or so there won't be an autumn and that will be the day I die. So you see Rose, if you can loosen her grip over the Doctor, you can also loosen her grip on the time she's stolen from us."

"Why is it that by freeing the Doctor I can help all of you? It doesn't make sense."

"The more company we sisters of the seasons keep the more power we have. But a consort, a lover, means that the power and the responsibility can be shared between the two. But the rules we live by as deities of the seasons determine that our powers are very much all-or-nothing. Control is maintained through careful and intense concentration, if we lose control over one aspect such as our companions, we lose control over our season as well. Which is why I choose not to assert psychic control over my companions like my sisters do, my people can come and go as they please, while as I'm sure you noticed the people living in other domains are not so free to choose. Luckily there are simple fail-safes built into our system where everything sort of… reboots itself if control is lost. However, the Balance between the seasons is merely sustained by an honor system between us four sisters. None of us steal time or power from the others because the others do not steal time or power from us. Or at least that was the case until the Snow Queen decided to try and claim this planet entirely for herself… It's funny… She used to listen to the rules, uphold her own honor, but one day she became obsessed with the cold and the ice, and started stealing power from the rest of us… I can't imagine why."

"Yeah, I still don't get why helpin' the Doctor would be so important to you."

"When a Sister takes a consort she shares her responsibilities with him, which includes dominion over the season itself. Your Doctor is now not only the last Timelord, but also the North Wind, which is the title given to the Snow Queen's lover."

"But the Doctor wouldn't agree to be her consort… he just wouldn't!" Rose insisted, her heart breaking at the thought.

"Rose, he didn't have a choice. Like you told me, he had been infected by the mirror of deception… he'd be dead by now if he hadn't."

"You say that like you know!"

"I do know. I can feel it. The moment he said yes, she grew stronger and I grew weaker."

"But have you seen that it was him?"

"Tall, handsome, brown suit, great hair albeit a bit like an excited hedgehog…"

Rose swore and fought back tears. She had failed, he was gone.

The Autumn Robber put a comforting hand on Rose's shoulder. "All's not lost, not yet. You can still help him, as long as you reach her palace by the winter solstice. Look on the positive side; at least you know he'll be alive when you get there this way!"

"You're terrible at makin' people feel better you know that?"

The Autumn Robber frowned and withdrew her hand. "S'never been one of my strengths, no."

"Rose!" June's cry broke both Rose and the Autumn Robber out of their reverie. "Are you alright?"

"Yes I'm fine." She replied from June's shoulder after the other girl had wrapped Rose in a warm embrace.

"You have to leave as soon as possible girls, there isn't much time left." The Autumn Robber said. "I'll make sure your reindeers are ready. You've still got a long journey ahead."

"I'm goin' with 'em Momma!" Calico ran up to them with a determined look on her face.

"Like hell you are!" replied her mother.

"But!"

"No!"

Calico grumbled as she slunk off and that was the end of it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few hours later Rose and June had been outfitted in proper attire for the journey north, at least by a robber's standards. This included warm fur-lined red mittens, and hats, wool stockings and jumpers, thick trousers, and seal-skin coats dyed deep blue. The garments were of the finest quality and Rose felt a little uncomfortable wearing them knowing that someone was going without these fine pieces.

Saddle packs were filled with food and the reindeer were saddled and bridled for the girls to ride.

"S'not as glamorous as your mother's carriage June, but it'll have to do. These two'll get you there at any rate." The Autumn Robber said.

"I still don' see why you have t' send my reindeer Momma." Calico complained loudly.

"Shut up my dear."

"There's one more thing I need to ask of you before I go." Rose said to the Autumn Robber as June concentrated on last minute preparations.

"Shoot." The Robber replied.

"The Summer Princess told me to get a sleeping potion from you; she said I could trade with you for it."

The Autumn Robber grinned. "I do have it, as I recall I stole it from the Summer Princess' convoy to the Snow Queen ages ago. It's just like her to remember that I have it."

"She told me I'd need it to get into the Snow Queen's palace."

The Robber woman nodded in agreement, "It might be of use to you, yes. What're you offering?"

"This." Rose replied holding the golden locket out in her hand, "Or these." She pulled the boots the Doctor had given her from her saddle bags.

The Autumn Robber looked over Rose's offerings with a frown.

"Tell you what." The woman said. "I have a feeling those pretty boots are too precious for you to give away, I'll take the broken locket and the silver knife that was in your pocket when we found you."

Rose grinned. "Done."

With that the swap was made and Rose mounted her reindeer.

"Make sure you move quickly. You're running out of time, winter will be here sooner than you think." The Autumn Robber said walking along side the girls as they made their way out of the camp. "Good bye and good luck, the next time I see you I hope that you bring your Doctor and Mehlu with you."

"Bye, and thanks for everything."

"I told you before Rose; it's not out of some gentle corner of my heart. I have a lot to gain from your success."

"Bye Rosie!" Calico called out from her tree-hut. Rose waved back.

A few Robbers accompanied them a few miles into the woods then turned back as the sun began to set.

"Well I can't say I'm entirely sad to leave that place." Said June once the men were out of earshot.

"Me neither." Rose agreed.

"We will get there in time Rose." Reassured the other girl.

"What if we don't?"

June shot Rose an inquisitive glance.

"Everyone keeps on saying that if I hurry I can still make it. To me that means I'm already late. So what happens if we don't make it in time? What then?"

June was silent for a while.

"Then you go home and this planet and everything on it dies."

Rose stopped her reindeer and dismounted.

"For the last ten months June, I have been the only hope for this stupid planet!" she shouted, "What if I can't do this without the Doctor? He always figures everything out way ahead of everyone else! Why can't you people just take care of yourself for once? Why does it always have to be that he sweeps in last minute to save the day? If you could just solve your own problems then the Doctor and I wouldn't get into half the scrapes we're always in! It's always, run for your lives here, and save these people there! Why can't you all save yourselves? God, I can't _do_ this anymore!"

With that Rose took off into the forest.

"Rose!" June cried urging her reindeer on, and leading Rose's behind her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

June finally found Rose sitting against a tree with her face race splotchy and red from crying, her sobs had long since ceased but the evidence was still there and tears would occasionally leak from her eyes.

"Feel better now?" June asked, dismounting.

"A bit." Rose replied.

They were silent for a while, staring at the frost-bitten leaves by their feet.

"Thing is June, I've never done this without the Doctor's help before… I've tried but it usually blows up in my face and he has to come in and clean up my mess… Last time I tried to do this on my own, I got my face eaten off by a telly…"

"What's a telly?"

"Never mind. The point is I'm not like the Doctor. He's just so much… more than me… I mean he could probably fix all this with a kettle and some string if he had to! Next to him I'm just… a stupid ape."

"Then why hasn't he?"

"What?"

"If the Doctor is so great, and could fix all the problems of our stupid planet, then why hasn't he?"

Rose sighed. "I wasn't being serious—"

June frowned. "First of all, from what I've seen, you're the bravest and smartest person I've ever met! You undervalue yourself! You can't keep on seeing yourself as lesser than the Doctor. You claim that you love him, but if you continue to see him as better than you, then all your feelings are just puppy love. Secondly, a lot of times planets are too busy being wrapped up in their problems to see the simple solutions that are so obvious to the people on the outside. You and the Doctor are free from our laws and realities so you two are the only people in the world who can find the answers rationally. That's true with any other case, you are free to do the right thing without risking the people you love, you both are free to make the hard decisions."

June reached to squeeze Rose's hand. "I _know_ you can sort this out. I've _seen_ you do it. You managed to get all the way from that tiny little village where you started to my mother's kingdom all by yourself. That takes a kind of strength and determination that I will never know. And you've gotten us all the way out here… you're amazing Rose, and your Doctor would have to be dumb, deaf, and blind not to know it. And from the way he trusts you now I think he does know."

Rose gave a broken laugh and brushed the angry tears from her cheeks.

"If you can't fight the Snow Queen for us," Jun continued. "Then do it for him, for your Doctor, for the man you love so much that you have crossed hundreds of miles just to get this far. Do it so that you can go home and see your mum with him standing right beside you… And I know I'm not much help, but you should remember that you're not alone anymore Rose. You're not going to have to finish this all by yourself. I consider us friends and I'll help you any way that I can."

Rose squeezed June's hand back. "Now who's looking down on herself, yeah?"

June smiled. "Well we'll have plenty of time to work on that on the way to the palace, so that when we get there the Doctor and Mehlu will look at us and say 'you're different!'"

"And then we'll say 'Well you've been gone a long time, you've missed some stuff!'"

Both women laughed and looked at the sky.

"It's getting dark." Rose said.

"We should probably set up camp for the night." June replied.

"Yeah, you're probably right."

As the two women lay down mats and sleeping bags and started a camp fire, and then began to prepare for bed. Rose heard June begin to sing quietly to herself, June singing wasn't a spectacular event so much as the song she sang. Rose knew it. Her mother used to play it when she was remembering her dad over a glass of wine and the old photo albums she kept in her room. Rose had learned to associate the song with her mother's darker patches. However, as she began to listen to the lyrics, Rose realized that while they fit her mother's situation abstractly, they fit June's story and her own as well perfectly.

June's eyes jumped from the fire she was tending to Rose when Rose's voice joined her in song.

"My mum used to play it when she was missing my dad." Rose explained with an embarrassed blush.

"I knew it was old, but not Earth old…"

They continued to sing until they fell asleep.

That night when Rose dreamed she saw a vision of the Doctor slumped next to a woman of terrible beauty in the flying sled. The sled soared for great distances before the Doctor woke.

"How are you?" the woman he'd followed asked.

"Cold." He whispered back shivering more violently.

"I suppose that kiss should have worn off by now… tell me do you remember the woman that you were traveling with?" she said glancing at him sideways.

Rose saw his eyes clear and widen with something akin to fear.

"Rose!" he exclaimed, "I left her back at the hotel…" His expression changed to one of sorrow. "She's going to be so worried." He turned to the woman driving. "Take me back!" He demanded pulling out the sonic screwdriver and aiming it at her. "Take me back to Rose right now!"

The woman merely glared at him and in a flurry of movement knocked the sonic screwdriver out of his hand. Both the Doctor and Rose watched with horror as it fell towards the nameless woods below.

The sonic landed with a thud near the roots of a tree in the Robber's forest. Rose watched as the months passed and it was covered with browning leaves.

Rose awoke suddenly and felt the urge to move. Her feet and the light of a full moon lead Rose to a familiar looking tree and Rose dropped to her knees to scramble around the base through the piles of dead leaves.

Rose shouted in triumph when her hand closed around a familiar piece of metal. She pressed her lips to the device and said a silent prayer of thanks to whoever was looking out for her then. Rose wasn't sure what the sonic would be good for yet, but she was certain that it would come in handy eventually.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Coming down the home stretch! Only about three chapters left to go!

I'm not terribly happy with this chapter as I got major writer's block for anything to flesh this bit out, so I cranked it out as best I could and now here it is, hot off the griddle and ready to read.

The song Rose and June were singing was "Jolene" particularly the Mindy Smith cover, since I'm not much a fan of Polly Parton who did the original.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: The Last Village

"This is it." June said to Rose as they looked down at the tiny village below. It was a quaint looking place, half made of little wooden huts of the Finn people and half of less permanent structures of the Lapp people made of skins and strong pieces of wood.

"This is the last bit of civilization we'll see until we reach the Snow Queen's palace."

"And the first bit on the way back…" Rose muttered.

Rose and June were two weeks out of the Autumn Robber's forest and already the trees had given way to patches of dense scrub and even larger patches of tundra. Frost came every night, and didn't melt until sundown only to be frozen over again. Winter would soon be here, but they still had time before the solstice.

When they entered the village they were greeted warmly by the people there. Their reindeer were taken away to be fed and rested and the two girls were brought inside the local meeting house which also doubled as a hunter's lodge.

"We don't get many visitors this far north, as you can imagine." Said their hostess, a Finn woman with yellow hair in braids and wrapped in brightly dyed wools. "Mostly trappers and hunters looking for ice fox or lemmings."

The woman placed bowls of warm soup and fresh bread in front of the girls which they began to eat gratefully.

"So to what do we owe the pleasure of two girls travelling alone in these parts?"

Rose stiffened a little, put off by the way the woman asked her question but June seemed either not to notice or not to care.

"We're on our way to the Snow Queen's palace."

There were only a few other people in the lodge but they all went dead silent and turned to face the girls. Their hostess watched them with a wary eye.

"Now why would you be wanting to do that?"

Rose glanced around nervously.

"You ain't 'er servants are you? You come to take my Joanna, like you done took my Mary?"

The men in the lodge had begun to pull out various weapons and were starting to circle the table where Rose and June sat. Rose decided that defusing the situation was the best idea, but how?

"We're not the Snow Queen's servants." Rose said.

'Oh, right, that was convincing.' She thought to herself.

"We're supposed to believe that lass?" One of the men asked from distressingly close behind her.

"But we're not!" June added helpfully.

"Prove it!" Another man said pulling June up by her arm. "Prove it, and we won't feed you to the wolves!"

As June cried out in pain and Rose remembered the gift from the Spring Witch's garden.

"I have this!" Rose cried, pulling the fragile snow drop from her pocket. She held it high to show the entire room.

"You only see these during the spring am I correct? So what's it doin' here, why do I have one at the start of winter? I am the Spring Witch's daughter! I am here to restore the balance in this world by defeating the Snow Queen. But most of all I'm here to get the Doctor back. My name is Rose Tyler."

A collective gasp rang from every corner of the room and her name was repeated in whispers and Rose fancied that she heard it make its way out the door of the lodge and through the village.

"Rose Tyler." A woman in one of the darker corners of the lodge stood and stepped forward; she had long black hair and tanned skin, and was dressed in the animal skin dresses of the Lapp people. "We hear your name sighed upon the wind at night, when the North Wind sleeps."

"North Wind! That's what the Autumn Robber called him, that's my Doctor!"

"I know." The woman cut her off. "Unfortunately he is not yours any longer, though it is possible that he may be again. For when he sleeps he sighs out your name and it can be heard on the wind that bears his title. However, we knew of you, and have been expecting you since before the Doctor became the North Wind. A girl of our village was kidnapped by the Snow Queen a few months ago; she escaped with the help of the Doctor, the lone survivor of a larger attempt. She was told to look for you, and to give you something and you alone. Will you receive it?"

Rose nodded.

"Very good. Come this way."

Rose directed a pointed look at June that said, 'Don't wander off,' on her way out the door.

"Who are you?" Rose asked the Lapp-woman when the stepped out of the wooden lodge.

"My name is Sedna; I am the shaman of the Lapp people of this village, and the medicine woman of both the Lapp and the Finn."

"You can't tell me how I can defeat the Snow Queen can you?"

Sedna gave Rose a sorrowful look.

"Didn't think so."

The two women stepped into a large round building made of tree branches and insulated with the pelts of animals. It smelled a bit rank on the inside because of the pelts, and also because of the various ointments and medicines that were all made from natural sources such as animal fat and barks.

Rose refrained from wrinkling her nose too much and followed Sedna to one of the hospital beds wherein a small girl was hidden among several layers of blankets and duvet.

She looked to be Rose's age or even younger with mousy brown hair and a round face.

"We finally found her half-frozen on the tundra." Sedna explained. "She was frost-bitten and starving. The food she had been carrying had attracted the animals during the night and they had made off with it while she slept. She was lucky they didn't think her a meal as well."

"What's her name?" Rose asked.

"Virginia McCru. 'Ginny,' for short. She has been a little touch-and-go the last few days. Forgive her if she doesn't understand you at first."

Rose knelt down by the girl's beside and spoke softly.

"Hello? Ginny? My name's Rose... I need to know what the Doctor gave to you. I've got to help him you see. I'm Rose, Rose Tyler. I'm the one he told you to find…"

"I'm sick, not dying!" The girl snapped coming out of her burrow of blankets. "I don' need any more coddling, just some tea and something t' eat."

Sedna moved off, supposedly to fetch such things.

When Ginny was finally sitting up in her bed with the blankets pooled around her waist she gave Rose a once-over.

"So you're Rose Tyler then?"

"Yeah. They told me the Doctor helped you."

"He did, got himself recaptured for his trouble. First time anyone's escaped from the Snow Queen's palace… well, that we know of, and the one who planned it all doesn't even get to benefit from it… How is he, do you know? They don't tell me much news in here."

"Well, he hasn't gotten away…" Rose began.

"He's the North Wind now ain't he?"

"Yes."

"Thought so, you can hear his voice when everything else is quiet during the night… I thought it was just me but, oh, I'm sorry Rose. I liked him I did, and from what I can tell I think you liked him more. Tell you what though, he hasn't forgotten you!" Ginny reached down to a bag that was under her bed. "He told me to give you this."

She pulled out a black wallet and handed it to Rose.

"The psychic paper!" Rose exclaimed.

"Really don't know how it's gonna help you." Ginny said, "Pardon me for being curious but I opened it up and it didn't do nothing, it was just a blank page."

Rose opened the wallet and immediately writing began to form across the blank page, when there was no longer any room, the page wiped and continued the message, until it started the loop again.

Ginny gave a whistle. "Now that there is very clever… What's it say, I can't read."

"Well…" Rose began.

"Oh!" Ginny gasped. "You don't have to tell me, if you don't want! If it's something private! I'm sorry, I'm so nosy sometimes. I try not to be, but sometimes I just get so excited I forget."

Rose smiled at the girl. "S'alright. S'not really anything all that private. Just the Doctor tellin' me how to get to the palace and what to watch out for… he says its booby trapped a few miles out…"

"That's the reason he didn't get away. He wanted to stay to help the people who'd gotten caught in the trap."

"What kind of trap is it?"

"I don't know really…" Ginny replied. "To be honest it looked like magic to me… we got to a certain point away from the castle and suddenly the wind picked up and people started getting frozen in the ice, like it was alive somehow… I know it sounds mad but, it's the truth."

"I believe you." Rose said, squeezing the young girl's hand.

"How are you going to get by it then? There wasn't anything I could see that we set off."

"I'll find a way." Rose replied, "I have one of the Doctor's tools and I have some time, I'm sure I can figure something out with it!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few hours later Rose was sitting in the snow and sorely tempted to take the sonic screwdriver and snap it in half… but that would put her in an even worse situation than she was in now, and she was pretty sure the Doctor would not be pleased if he found out she'd broken his beloved toy simply out of frustration.

Suddenly a shadow fell across Rose, and she looked up to see a Finn woman silhouetted in the sun.

"Come on love." She said. "Come get some food and a nap, you'll need all your strength for your journey."

"I'm really not that—" Rose was cut off by the woman's sharp gaze.

"Yes, ma'am." Rose said getting up and following the woman inside the lodge.

A bowl of hearty stew later, Rose and the Finn woman sat by the fire in the lodge with mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits between them.

"You remind me of my daughter." The Finn woman, whose name was Bearta said during a lull in their conversation. Rose had opened up to the woman and told her about actually being from another planet. The woman smiled graciously and had said that she'd heard stories that some of the more southerly villages got alien visitors but she'd always thought they were only nonsense.

"Yeah?" Rose smiled.

"She was like you, a dreamer, so very much in love, too hard to tie down."

"What happened to her?"

"Life." Bearta answered simply. "She saw the world, met a man that she fell very much in love with and now has a daughter of her own…"

There was a pause.

"You remind me of my mum, you know."

Bearta smiled affectionately.

"We used to do this type of thing all the time… sitting on the couch drinking tea and eating biscuits, just talking the day away…"

"And what happened?" But Bearta's eyes said that she already knew the answer.

Rose smiled almost ruefully. "Life."

Tears were beginning to spring into her eyes. "I met the Doctor, and he's shown me the most wonderful things, and I love him, more than I can ever say. But…"

Rose choked back a sob. "I haven't seen my mum in a year because of him, and there are nights when all I want is to be back with her just to rest for a little while and have tea and biscuits and talk about silly, unimportant things. And I—I miss her!"

Bearta moved to give Rose a tight hug as she lost control of her emotions.

Rose sobbed into the older woman's shoulder and Bearta rocked her gently while shushing her soothingly. When Rose had finally shed her last tear she sat back and apologized sheepishly.

"Hormones from my period and all that." She said with the wave of her hand.

"It's all right love," Bearta replied. "It's what you needed."

Rose began to wipe at her eyes and clear the tear tracks down her face.

"Do you have any way to contact her?" Bearta asked, and Rose froze.

"Oh my god, I'm such an idiot!" she cried and fumbled for the bag where her mobile was shoved into a pocket.

"You can contact her with that?" Bearta asked, eyeing the device.

"Yeah! I can't believe I didn't think of this before!" She said dialing her mum's phone.

"You've been preoccupied…"

"Hello?" Jackie Tyler said answering her kitchen phone.

"Mum, it's me!" Rose replied, joy evident in her voice.

"Rose! Where are you, sweet heart? When you coming to visit?"

"I'm on this planet, miles away… but I don't know when I'll be home."

"Why?" Jackie was suddenly wary. "What's he done? Has he left you? Has he died?"

"No Mum… not exactly…"

"What you mean not 'exactly?' Either he's gone or he isn't!"

"He's not gone mum; he's just not with me at the moment…" Jackie went to speak again but Rose cut her off. "He got kidnapped! I'm trying to save him… I've been trying for a long time, and I'm almost there."

"Oh sweet heart… how do you know he's still alive? Sorry to say, but half the time someone goes missing they find 'em dead… and how long have you been gone for anyway?"

"Trust me mum, he's still alive. An'… well how long has it been for you?"

"I dunno, a little over three weeks?"

"Right… well it's been a bit longer for me…"

"How much longer?"

"I don't think it's a good idea—"

"If my daughter looks the same age as me when you get back I'm gonna kill him myself!"

Rose laughed. "Not THAT long!"

"Well how am I supposed to know? I ask him how long you've been gone for and he says 'It's all relative.' What the hell does that mean, 'It's all relative?' She's my daughter and I don't want to miss seeing her grow up!"

"Mum, what I will tell you is that we'll have to celebrate two of my birthdays this year okay? And I promise the first place I'll come once I get the Doctor back is home, okay?"

"What if you can't find him?"

"Mum…"

"I'm serious Rose! What if he's dead?"

"There's a program on the TARDIS, like the one that brought me home that time before… if I can't find him within the next two and a half weeks, or if he's dead when I find him, I come straight home and I'll never leave home again."

"Alright, that does make me feel better…" Jackie murmured.

"Anyway, I should probably go mum; I need to get some things before we leave tomorrow."

"Okay, good bye sweet heart, I love you, you know that?"

I know, and I love you too, bye for now."

"And Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"I hope you find him. He's been good to you, and good for you Rose. I really am so proud of you. I never got too far away from home but you… My daughter out there amongst the stars! And I know it don't always seem like it but he loves you as well, you can see it in his face and I know you have to love him or else you wouldn't be doing this. So, I hope you find him, alive."

Rose felt more tears welling up in her eyes. "Thanks, Mum. I miss you."

"Miss you too sweet heart, every day."

With that Rose hung up and smiled.

Bearta had wandered back into the kitchen to do dishes and Rose brought their mugs of tea in to help her.

"Did you have a nice chat?" Bearta asked.

"Yeah, we did." Rose smiled.

"Good, you look much better off as well. More color in your cheeks, and more sparkle in your eyes."

Rose smiled.

After dinner and planning with June, Sedna, and several other members of the village, they had a plan of how to get to the Snow Queen's palace. But they still had no idea how to get passed the booby traps save by pure luck.

It was late by the time Rose and June fell into their respective beds.

Rose held the sonic and the psychic paper close to her as she lay there, but she refused to give into sleep until the heard for herself the sighing of the North Wind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Many miles away the Snow Queen decided that she would sleep for the night and relieved all of her servants from duty. Climbing the stairs to her chamber she was escorted by the North Wind.

The Snow Queen ran her hand through his brittle hair and pushed some of the snow crystals from the thick locks.

"I do not require you in my chamber tonight, my love." The Snow Queen said. "You may go and rest."

"As you wish, my lady." The North Wind replied and descended the stairs in the direction of his own quarters.

The Snow Queen frowned; she knew he sighed the name of the girl who had been in his hearts before he'd succumbed to her power as he slept, and if she was completely honest with herself this did bother her somewhat. But soon the Winter Solstice would come and then, nothing would be able to separate them, and the Snow Queen would have a consort with whom she would rule over this planet until the end of time.

The Snow Queen smiled and resumed the climb to her rooms.

Meanwhile the North Wind had made his way to his rooms in the Snow Queen's Palace and had almost immediately fallen into a deep sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N: Not much to say about this chapter really… Please write a quick comment? I love hearing feedback!


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